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THE FUNCTIONS AND PHYSIOLOGY OF MEMORY.

A NEW HORIZONS RESEARCH FOUNDATION PAPER.

Copyright: New Horizons Research Foundation. January 1987.

INTRODUCTION.

How does memory work? No one - but no one - i s sure. I t ' s that simple. What makes memory so hard to understand i s the seeming caprice with which i t operates. Man has always speculated about memory, and the subject s t i l l o f f e r s a major challenge to psychologists. Before the subject can be properly discussed, what 'memory' involves must be c l a r i f i e d and some ways of thinking about i t outlined.

The f i r s t d i f f i c u l t y i s that memory i s conventionally regarded as a discrete area of study and investigation, or even as a discrete phenomenon. But c l e a r l y i t subsumes, or at l e a s t involves, almost a l l the other t r a d i t i o n a l areas of psychology. For instance, i f we were memory-less how could we be said to perceive, conceptualize, imagine, or remininisce? How could we plan, deduce, solve problems, or think l o g i c a l l y ? How could we engage i n learning, develop new s k i l l s , and habits, or retain old ones? How could we form s o c i a l relationships, attitudes, or personality attributes? Indeed, without memory how could we acquire the primitive responses which enable us to survive? So i t could be argued that the topic of 'memory encompasses so many other psychological phenomena and functions that i t i s no more amenable to examination than 'psychology' i t s e l f . However, we propose to make a 'stab' at some understanding of what memory i s a l l about.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF MEMORY.

For many years neurophysiologists have been attempting to discover exactly where i n the brain the mechanism that i s responsible f o r our a b i l i t y to remember i s situated. For several decades now neurophysiologists have extensively mapped the brain with e l e c t r i c a l recording devices and weak e l e c t r i c currents to map the pathways of the nerves of the brain, and they can now speak with some confidence of v i s u a l , auditory, and motor areas i n the cerebral cortex. Much i s now understood about these processes, but the l o c a t i o n of a special area where memory resides, i f such a location indeed exists, remains s t i l l t o t a l l y unknown. Physiologists describe two types of memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. The terms are s e l f - d e s c r i p t i v e . I t appears that for a memory to become long-term, retained over a period of time, a system of r e g i s t r a t i o n , or f i x a t i o n , has to occur. In short term memory the given facts are not 'fixed' and therefore are not retained f o r remembrance l a t e r . This f a c t explains why, i n a traumatic situation incurring some brain damage, such as a concussion during an accident, the victim i s unable to remember the events that immediately preceded the accident, although the long-term memory i s unaffected. The memories immediately p r i o r to the accident had not become fixed before the brain received the shock which stopped i t s operation temporarily, and so the memory i s l o s t forever. I t w i l l most l i k e l y never return, the memory i s completely l o s t .

Of course, complete or p a r t i a l loss of memory can occur a f t e r extensive brain damage, as in the course of some diseases, p a r t i c u l a r l y the degenerative diseases that can accompany old age. I t i s also well known that severing certain nerves i n the f r o n t a l area of the brain, as has been done i n the operation of f r o n t a l lobectomy f o r certain mental diseases can also cause memory loss, sometimes patchy, sometimes more extensive.

Following extensive brain damage many patients who have undergone retr a i n i n g have found i t possible to regain some of the l o s t memories, even though these may be patchy; more importantly, and more inte r e s t i n g l y , with patience even some of the most extensively brain damaged persons can be taught basic s k i l l s again that they had l o s t , reading, writing, arithmetic, personal care, a b i l i t y to move around i n t h e i r environment, thus demonstrating that even following the most extensive damage, the a b i l i t y to learn and thus remember i s not t o t a l l y l o s t . Memory does not seem to reside i n any one area of the brain, such as v i s i o n , speech function, hearing and the l i k e , i t appears to 'permeate' i f one can use that word the whole brain area.

Karl H. Pribram i n an a r t i c l e "The Neurophysiology of Remembering"(Scientific American, Jan 1969, 220, 1) writes "I believe there i s now available a hypothesis about the nature of the memory trace that s a t i s f i e s the known physiological requirements and that can be tested by experiment. I t i s perhaps not surprising that the brain may exploit among other things the most sophisticated p r i n c i p l e of information storage yet known; the p r i n c i p l e of the hologram. In a hologram the information i n a scene i s recorded on a photographic plate i n the form of a complex interference, or diffraction, pattern that appears meaningless. When the pattern i s illuminated by coherent l i g h t , however, the o r i g i n a l image i s reconstructed. What makes the hologram unique as a storage device i s that every o r i g i n a l image i s d i s t r i b u t e d over the entire photographic plate. The hypothesis i s a t t r a c t i v e because remembering or r e c o l l e c t i n g l i t e r a l l y implies a reconstructive process - the assembly of dismembered mnemic events." During the past few decades a tremendous amount of work has been done on the neurophysiology of memory and learning, most of i t too technical and specialised f o r the average person to comprehend. A great deal of work has been done on the e f f e c t of various chemicals on the brain's a b i l i t y to retain information, and t h i s work i s s t i l l proceeding. Much work has been done on creatures such as octopus and s n a i l s that has led to some understanding of the manner i n which the brain retains and acts upon information.

Some recent research on the s n a i l Hermissenda produced r e s u l t s that excited participants at a conference on the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory in C a l i f o r n i a i n 1985• Prof. Daniel Alkon, of the Marine B i o l o g i c a l Laboratory at Woods Hole, Masachusetts, reported on his experiments to a fascinated audience. Alkon conditioned h i s snails on a turntable, where they learned to associate two stimuli - a f l a s h of l i g h t , and the rotation of the turntable. Hermissenda have two types of eye neurons; A c e l l s that sense l i g h t , and turn the animal towards i t , and B c e l l s , that also sense l i g h t , but can i n h i b i t the A c e l l s from turning the animal i n the d i r e c t i o n of l i g h t . The i n h i b i t i o n of movement occurs when the statocysts - organs that r e g i s t e r s p a t i a l orientation - t e l l the s n a i l to hold tight, as they do when the seas they l i v e i n are rough.

The B c e l l normally receives i n h i b i t o r y signals from the statocyst which keeps i t i n the negatively charged resting state by allowing p o s i t i v e potassium ions to leave the c e l l . When a l i g h t flashes, positive sodium ions rush into the B c e l l , followed by positive calcium ions. During t r a i n i n g , the turntable starts at that moment, and the statocyst increases i n h i b i t i o n of the B c e l l . But when rotation stops, the statocyst relaxes i t s i n h i b i t o r y hold on the B c e l l , which becomes more positive as more calcium channels open. When the number of calcium ions dramatically increases, a widespread change occurs; phosphate groups block certain membrane channels, which r e s t r i c t s the outward flow of potassium ions and r e s u l t s i n an excess of p o s i t i v e ions i n the B c e l l . For as long as the potassium channels remain blocked, at l e a s t a few days, the B c e l l remains i n a semi-excited state. I t i s more prone to f i r e i t s i n h i b i t o r y message to the A c e l l , preventing the s n a i l from moving toward the l i g h t .

Now just a f l a s h of l i g h t w i l l do what the rotation did o r i g i n a l l y - i n h i b i t the muscles that move the s n a i l towards l i g h t . Hermissenda has learned.

En passant i t i s worth noting that Pavlov himself and h i s i n t e l l e c t u a l heritors, the "behaviourists" (such as Watson and Skinner) would have said merely that the Hermissendas had been "conditioned" so that a minimum stimulus would produce the r e f l e x that o r i g i n a l l y ( i . e . before conditioning) had required a more massive and prolonged stimulus f o r tr i g g e r i n g . However, "the w h i r l i g i g of time brings i n i t s changes" and "learning" i s no longer a d i r t y word i n behaviourist c i r c l e s (even though "consciousness" s t i l l may be); i n fact, much of behaviourism i n experimental psychology has merely gone underground and^donned a white collar**under the current t i t l e of "learning theory". (See The Rise and Decline of Behaviourism, New Horizons, A p r i l 198J>) •

In s i m i l a r c l a s s i c a l conditioning experiments rabbits had learned to blink t h e i r eyes at the sound of a tone. S l i c e s of brain tissue from the hippocampus, a s i t e i n mammalian brains believed to play a central role i n learning, were examined and compared among trained and untrained animals. Hippocampal nerve c e l l s from conditioned rabbits r e f l e c t e d changes i n electrophysiological properties and i n membrane channels si m i l a r to conditioned s n a i l s . Alkon said " I t turns out that those channels are not i d i o s y n c r a t i c to Hermissenda or molluscs, or even invertebrates of any species. Those p a r t i c u l a r channels are conserved during evolution, and they are present a l l the way from paramecia to rabbits, cats, and ourselves".

The author of the a r t i c l e reporting the proceedings of t h i s Conference on Learning (Science, May 1985) comments "Not everyone would agree with that of course, nor r e l i s h the thought that memories of a high school sweetheart might be explained by the comingling of calcium ions and other chemicals i n a s p l i t second of sentimental history. The audacity of that notion i s matched only by the idea that the answer to learning's vast puzzle i s coming from lowly gastropods. As one neurobiologist recently said "Thank God fo sna i l s " . "

The physiology of learning and memory remains a vast puzzle, and i s l i k e l y to be so for. some time i n the future. The l i t e r a t u r e on the subject i s so extensive, and so technical, i t i s not possible to expand further i n t h i s short a r t i c l e . However, i f we s t i l l do not f u l l y understand the neurophysiology of the brain i n respect of memory function, we do have some understanding of how memory functions and of what we can expect of our a b i l i t y to remember.

THE FUNCTION OF MEMORY.

Memory i s the most essential function of our brain. L i f e without memory would be almost impossible. As we have seen, even the most primitive creatures need to possess some rudimentary form of memory i n order to survive. Memory i s stimulated through a l l of our senses; we see and remember, we taste and remember, we hear and remember, we touch and remember, and a l l these memories comprise the experiences which enable us to survive.

How do we learn? The answer to t h i s question i s as complex and complicated as the whole of our own personal experience. At the bottom end of the scale we learn through simple experience - the c h i l d touches a hot surface and gets burnt, and subsequently remembers that the experience of touching something hot w i l l cause a painf u l experience; an experience that i s l i t e r a l l y 'burnt' into memory. The c h i l d w i l l not

d e l i b e r a t e l y or v o l u n t a r i l y touch a hot surface again, the memory of the experience i s f o r l i f e - a long-term memory. The experience has been v i v i d and pai n f u l . Experiences which produce pain, fear, joy, delight, - highlights of emotional feelings, even though they may be one-time only experiences, are usually 'sealed' i n memory, perhaps f o r a l i f e t i m e .

Whether the "conditioned ref l e x " which produces an immediate response, without any process of conscious reasoning or decision being gone through, should be called a form of memory i s , of course, a t r i c k y point.

Other memories are formed by the process of r e p e t i t i o n . We are a l l f a m i l i a r with the process of learning by t h i s method, the mathematical tables that we learned i n childhood, the playing of scales on the piano, the r e c i t a t i o n of poems, songs, speeches, and the l i k e . Some of these memories are retained over long periods of time, others are forgotten unless continually, or at least occasionally, reinforced by further r e p e t i t i o n . Other memories s t i l l are formed because of our own special i n t e r e s t s . In these cases we learn because we choose to involve ourselves i n a special area of interest, a hobby, be i t stamp-collecting, entomology, parapsychology, photography and the hobbyist, because of hi s or her in t e r e s t and involvement i n the chosen subject w i l l r e t a i n memories of what they have learned f o r a much longer period of time than w i l l those who have l i t t l e i n t e r e s t i n the subject. We seem to have an a b i l i t y to choose what we w i l l remember i n certain areas.

S i m i l a r l y one i s conveniently able to forget information that i s of l i t t l e i n t e r e s t or relevance to one's continued a b i l i t y to function. Although information i s continually fed into our brains, at least through our waking periods, and possibly to some extent during our sleeping periods, our memory function i s able to sort, discard, and retain, and (fo r want of a better word) ' f i l e ' t h i s information i n order of i t s importance.

P'or irustance, when reading the d a i l y newspaper each morning one w i l l remember f o r only a few hours most of the detailed reports one has read regarding d a i l y events; but just one or two s t o r i e s may 'stand out i n the mind' and remain i n the memory because the knowledge i s personally important. Similarly, while one might make a number of telephone c a l l s during the course of a day, one i s unlikely to remember any of the numbers cal l e d . The information i s irrelevant, e a s i l y found again when needed, and so not important. We meet many people casually, whom we know we are unl i k e l y to meet again, and we dismiss them from our memories, and i n most cases would be

able to r e c a l l neither names or faces a few days l a t e r . However, i f on f i r s t encounter with a new piece of information, - a telephone number, or a person - we have reason to think we may need t h i s information again, there seems to be no problem i n storing that information immediately i n memory.

I t i s f a s c i n a t i n g to speculate as to how material i s stored i n memory. We l i k e n the memory function to a f i l i n g system or computer f o r want of better terms to describe that function. A report was recently given i n a s c i e n t i f i c magazine (Discover, October 1985) of a man who had had a stroke and suffered damage to the l e f t f r o n t a l lobe of h i s brain. His memory was affected i n a very specialised way. He suffered from anomia ( d i f f i c u l t y i n finding words) as a result, but his anomia was very narrow. While being able to i d e n t i f y such diverse words as abacus, protractor,sphinx, t r e l l i s , yoke, etc. he drew a complete blank when confronted with any name of anything that grew i n a garden or orchard. He could not i d e n t i f y a peach, apples, cherries, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and so on. He only had trouble with the names of f r u i t s and vegetables; i t was as i f the page of h i s mind pn which the names of f r u i t s and vegetables are written had been ripped out. S c i e n t i s t s have long believed that words i n the brain are organized i n a sort of inner lexicon. The t r i c k i s to figure out the f i l i n g system. This patient's experience suggests that the inner lexicon has rather s p e c i f i c entries. The f a c t that he l o s t the f r u i t and vegetable category suggests that there i s such a category to lose. When asked where the produce section of the brain i s , the s c i e n t i s t s answer that they do not know where in the brain any category i s .

The common experience of forgetfulness on the one hand, and retentiveness on the other, suggests that memory functions i n two d i s t i n c t ways - on a short-term basis, and on a long-term one. For purposes of discussion i t i s often convenient to speak of a short-term memory and a long-term memory, although the two seem to be so closely related that they are described by some investigators as two aspects of the same phenomenon. Short-term storage serves well f o r many occasions i n d a i l y l i f e . Long-term storage i s , i n fact, learning; the process by which information that may be needed agin i s stored f o r r e c a l l on demand.

The problem of "repression" — the apparent 'forcing-out' of either iso l a t e d facts or whole connected pieces of experience from the memory into a realm which seems to be almost t o t a l l y beyond r e c a l l , represents, i t would seem, yet another kind of forgetfulness. According to psychoanalytic theories "repression" comes about because the emotions associated with these memories are too disturbing to be allowed to be r e a d i l y available to the conscious mind. However t h i s problan i s not one we are a b l t to pursue here. Our concern i s with normal features of

memory and f o r g e t t i n g rather than with the pathological. S i m i l a r l y we do not review memory disorders.

Endless fascinating experiments have been done on the a b i l i t y "to remember, we can only quote a few of the r e s u l t s "that have been quoted i n the l i t e r a t u r e on the subject.

The process i s by nD means simple. For example, i n experiments done with subjects learning l i s t s of words, i t was discovered "thai; "the more l i s t s a subjects has learned "the more he forgets of "the l a s t l i s t he studied. Somehow each l i s t ; learned contributes "to the f o r g e t t i n g of the following l i s t s or l i s t . But how? How can something learned ten to twenty days ago influence the forgetting of new material?

An experimenter describes some of h i s experiments on "this as follows —

"This tame we ask a subject to l e a r n two l i s t s , both of the paired-association type, and related to each other. The f i r s t l i s t i s DAX - neutral, VOH - pretty, PEL - hybrid, QUS - a r c t i c (Usually we would use a longer l i s t , but t h i s shortened version w i l l do f o r i l l u s t r a t i o n ) . A f t e r the subject has learned to say "Neutral" when he i s shown DAX as the cue, "Pretty" i n response tD TDH, and SD on, he i s given the second l i s t to learn, t h i s time with d i f f e r e n t words associated with the same cues: DAX - yellow, VOH - a g i l e , PEL — flashy, QUS -unclean, l e a r n i n g an item i n the second l i s t i s l i k e learning a new number f o r your home telephone, or a new p o s i t i o n f o r reverse i n your car's gearshift. I t takes the subject a l i t t l e longer to learn the second l i s t to the point where he can give the correct responses to a l l the items i n a t r i a l , "but he does not have as much d i f f i c u l t y i n learning as one might expect.

Twenty-four hours l a t e r we t e s t the subject on each l i s t . I f lie had been given only one l i s t to learn, h i s f o r g e t t i n g score would have been 20 percent. But now h i s forgetting, or failure*, i s 60 per cent on both l i s t s . ' That i s to say, hi s f o rgetting has been increased by 40 per .cent, and we must conclude that interference of one l i s t with the other i s the reason. "This i n t e r p r e t a t i o n i s borne out by the f a c t that i n t r y i n g to r e c a l l the associations i n the f i r s t l i s t the subject often gives a word or two from the second l i s t and v i c e versa. I t i s as i f the two learning batches had been poured into a single beaker and become mixed together by d i f f u s i o n as time passes. "

In the cases just described we can say L i s t 2 exerted retroactive interference with the r e c o l l e c t i o n of L i s t 1, and L i s t 1 caused proactive interference with the attempt to remember L i s t 2. These experiments i l l u s t r a t e another important p r i n c i p l e j the interference, and hence the forgetting, i s most severe when the things to be remembered are very s i m i l a r to each other. Here we had two l i s t s i n which the cues, to which d i f f e r e n t answers had to be given, were i d e n t i c a l . We would get the same high rate of forgetting i f the two l i s t s were simply l i s t s of words, one of which congisted of synonyms f o r the corresponding items i n the other.

Summing up these observations i n the form of a general theory, we can say that'-all forgetting r e s u l t s b a s i c a l l y from interference between the associations a man carries i n h i s memory storage system".

Later experiments, however, suggested that the i n a b i l i t y to r e c a l l previously learned l i s t s was due not so much to interference as to 'overcrowding' and the fac t that search for previously learned information must be conducted over a broader area of memory. Experimenters i n t h i s theory point out that interference acting over a period of time c h i e f l y a f f e c t s a v a i l a b i l i t y , leaving association unimpaired. They quote a f a m i l i a r experience of everyday l i f e - the " t i p -of-the-tongaae"phenomenon. One may pride onself on having a good memory f o r both faces and names, and then meet someone whose face i s f a m i l i a r but whose name seems almost, but not quite, there. I f a mutual friend should happen to come along and greet the other person by name, the name would be recognized in s t a n t l y . This i s a t y p i c a l instance i n which "association" - that i s , the knowledge that a face and a name go together - has beai preserved, even though the desired item of information cannot be brought to mind. The memory i s simply not "available". There i s also the reverse phenomenon; the memory i s available, but the association i s l o s t . Another everyday experience which lends credence to the overcrowding theory, and the necessity f o r search i s when, i n the above s i t u a t i o n f o r instance, a mutual fri e n d does not appear, to use the looked-for name, and one i s l e f t flounering, attempting to conceal the fac t that one has t o t a l l y forgotten the name, only to remember i t i n a fl a s h some time la t e r , perhaps immediately on leaving the person, maybe some hours l a t e r . I t ce r t a i n l y seems that a search has had to be conducted to match face and name. One of us (IMO) conducted a personal experiment once to decide how many people might f i t into the category of being known s u f f i c e n t l y casually that one might not expect to remember them immediately, but had been known s u f f i c e n t l y well that t h e i r names and faces might be imprinted on memory.

These names were of patients nursed over a period of time, people belonging to various organizations with whom contact had been made f a i r l y frequently; most of these were people who equally might be expected to remember both by name and face the experimenter. After l i s t i n g more than one thousand names, the theory of search became a very reaonsable theory indeed. I t also made one f e e l a l o t better when on occasion one did get stuck f o r a name!

Experiments have been done to test the extent to which forgetting was affected by interference. As might be expected, i n the l i g h t of personal experience, i t was decided that while some items are i n fa c t completely l o s t -t h e i r a v a i l a b i l i t y i s l o s t * , the subject's a b i l i t y to associate items remains generally unimpaired; the d i f f i c u l t y l i e s rather i n bringing items to mind. So, i n the above example, i f the person met i n the street had had so l i t t l e impact on the memory that r e c a l l of both face and name had been l o s t (the c o c k t a i l party type guest!) then that memory i s l o s t beyond r e c a l l , but i f the memory had been such that the face can be remembered, then using search procedures, the brain w i l l eventually come up with the name.

What does seem to be a fascinating enigma i s i n understanding how the brain i s able to make ligh t n i n g decisions about what i s important to remember and store, and what i s i r r e l e v a n t and can be forgotten. These factors are important when one i s looking at eye-witness testimony i n the case of crimes having been witnessed. When someone i s a c t u a l l y witnessing a crime being committed, a bank hold-up f o r instance, n a t u r a l l y there w i l l be some reliance on what the witness a c t u a l l y sees at the moment, and immediately a f t e r the crime. The brain i s r e g i s t e r i n g the importance of remembering the incidents as they happen. But, how r e l i a b l e i s the memory of someone who was i n the bank, say, f o r ten or f i f t e e n minutes before the crime, and who might attempt to i d e n t i f y other customers, or happenings? I f everything appeared normal u n t i l the moment of the crime, i t i s l i k e l y that the memories of those previous minutes are l o s t , there being no reason to r e t a i n them. More on t h i s subject l a t e r .

While experts generally agree that there are at least two types of memory - long-term and short-term - there seems to be no unanimity of opinion as to how these function. Some believe that long-term memory i s simply an extension of short-term memory, and that r e p e t i t i o n of the experience converts short into long-term memory, while other believe that they are two d i f f e r e n t functions. Some researchers believe that there are three stages of memory. The f i r s t

i s a complete sensory image of just-occurring events, (the so-called Ionic memory), the second and immediate, or short-term memory, which contains thelimited information we are able to extract from the rapidly decaying sensory image, and the third , a permanent or long-term memory with a very large capacity. I t i s possible to construct many models of the i n t e r r e l a t i o n s h i p among various memory systems; the l i m i t i s given only by the l i m i t s of the imagination. I t i s much more d i f f i c u l t to test the implications of each model and r e s t r i c t the set of p o s s i b i l i t i e s . Some psychologists, on the other hand, f e e l there i s l i t t l e value i n making d i s t i n c t i o n s among d i f f e r e n t memory processes, for they believe that memory i s one single phenomenon which simply appears to be d i f f e r e n t when examined by d i f f e r e n t experimental techniques. An ever increasing amount of evidence does seem to favour the interpretation of human memory as a part of a complex chain of processes which are involved in the handling of information from i t s sensory representation to i t s permanent storage. These processes appear to have d i f f e r e n t functional modes of excitation, although the issue of whether d i f f e r e n t physical structures are involved i s not yet s e t t l e d .

Maby gives the following d e f i n i t i o n -

"The chief function of memory, whether as an autonomous psychic f a c u l t y of Mind, or whether (i n part, at least) as an instinctive•= i n p r e s s i o n a b i l i t y of Matter (as i n our examples of mechanical, photographic, and magnetic recording techniques i n modern science) i s , of course, to enable the l i v i n g organism to unify i t s whole existence, past, presn'ent, and future, i n a coherent and harmonious way; so that i t may duly benefit by past experience, and act appropriately on each fresh occasion. I t i s , furthermore, a secondary and no l e s s important function of memory to enable the in d i v i d u a l to put two and two together so as to make four, nor six or eight, and thus to calculate and plan ahead, to devise and scheme creatively."

Not transferred to next stage and therefore forgotten

FIGURE 10-11 Hypothetical scheme of the human memory system. Sen­sory information enters a sensory register or "iconic" memory, where it is held in detail for a brief period. Some of this information is transferred to a short-term memory store (as in remembering a new telephone number briefly). Some of the information in short-term memory can be trans­ferred into long-term memory, usually by rehearsing or repeating it, and other information from short-term memory is forgotten. When you re­member something, it is transferred from long-term memory into short-term memory. Short-term memory is roughly equivalent to consciousness or awareness. (After E. Loftus, Memory, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1980.)

HOW DO WE LEARN?

Many many books have been written, and endless experiments conducted i n order to explain how we learn, and how we may improve our learning a b i l i t i e s . I t would be impossible to summarize many of them here, and indeed the interested experimenter would f i n d i t easy to devise any number of experiments to s a t i s f y his or her curiousity on any p a r t i c u l a r point. Certain facts have been completely accepted over the years, and are perhaps almost too obvious to need to be stated. F i r s t and foremost i n order f o r memory to function the subject must have an intent to learn. I f one decides not to memorize an experience, or an event, or a l i s t of words, then that memory does not occur. Memory, by and large, i s a deliberate act of w i l l . This probably came about, in, the f i r s t place, as a protective device. We are able to forget, and i n some circumstances t o t a l l y erase, the memory of unpleasant and traumatic experiences. Here one needs to i n t e r j e c t a note of caution. We have so f a r been talking about conscious memory. Later in t h i s paper we s h a l l tackle the subject of subconscious memories, those memories forgotten f o r the above reasons, or l o s t

through the passage of time, which may through such means as hypnosis be retrieved and r e l i v e d . Some of these retrieved memories sometimes contain material which the subject has, at the time, apparently consciously rejected. But, in a simple type of experiment, f o r instance, i f someone re c i t e s a l i s t of names or a r t i c l e s to a person who de l i b e r a t e l y and consciously refuses to attempt to memorise them, experiments show that, at that time, the subject i s then unable to repeat the l i s t , the information has been deliberately rejected. Attention has to be paid to the information proffered, i n order f o r the material to be memorized. Again, the f a m i l i a r example i n everyday l i f e i s the absent-minded professor, wrapt in h i s writing or thinking, to whom quite i n t e r e s t i n g and exciting information can be given, but because of his inattention the information i s t o t a l l y rejected, and l a t e r the person w i l l deny ever having heard, l e t alone remembered, the information, gi^ren. So, i n order to memorize something, the w i l l to learn must be present, and the attention given to the information presented.

Another fa c t that i s well known i s that memory i s not a s k i l l , i n the sense that w e i g h t l i f t i n g i s . I t used to be thought, (and indeed by some people s t i l l i s ) that i f one wants a good memory one simply practices memorization. That i s to say, pr a c t i c i n g memory exercies alone does not improve one's performance. William James, who performed many experiments i n learning and memory techniques once trained himself d a i l y i n the learning of poetry 'by heart'. For eight consecutive days he learned 158 l i n e s of Vi c t o r Hugo's Satyr. Then he spent 38 days learning the entire f i r s t book of Paradise Lost, expecting that a l l t h i s e f f o r t would have improved h i s memory. But when he went back to V i c t o r Hugo he found that an additional 158 l i n e s took him, i f anything, longer to learn than the f i r s t set of 158 l i n e s . Apparently no good had resulted from h i s e f f o r t s . Not trusting these results, James set out to test a whole series of surpr i s i n g l y docile friends who spent many weeks learning many l i n e s of poetry and found, on the whole, no improvement i n th e i r a b i l i t y to learn material a f t e r a l l t h e i r labour.

Studies of the ef f e c t of performance i n one task upon learning or performance i n another task are ca l l e d studies i n transfer. Thus, James' experiments on memory tra i n i n g can be considered experiments on transfer of memory s k i l l . Although James was correct i n his conclusion that practice alone does not improve one's a b i l i t y to memorize, he was a b i t premature i n concluding that i t i s a l l wasted e f f o r t . I t i s possible to to learn techniques which considerably improve the s k i l l s of memory. But practice i s useless unless you know the rules. For example, i t helps considerably to form rhymes and to form images and associations among the items to be learned. I t helps also to relax and have confidence i n one's own a b i l i t y to memorize.

James' experiment was repeated by Woodrow, only with more care. He wanted to see what improvement i n memorization would come about a f t e r practice i n "proper methods of memorizing". He found that a group of students who practiced memorizing l i s t s f o r several hours did no better than a control group of students who did not practice. This v e r i f i e d the conclusion reached by James. But a group of students who were instructed i n proper techniques of memorizing did much better a f t e r the same amount of study. Thus, i n memory, as i n most things, sheer b l i n d practice i s of l i t t l e or no use; informed learning of a set of rules and techniques does prove useful.

There are many methods and rules that have been based on th i s experimental data, and hundreds of books on methods f o r improving one's memory have been written. They d i f f e r mainly i n the s k i l l with which they are written and the dogmatism with which t h e i r secrets are presented. But i n many cases t h e i r content merits serious consideration.

Some methods are r e l a t i v e l y simple - f o r instance we are a l l f a m i l i a r with the ' i before e except a f t e r c' mnemonic, and the rhyme "Thirty days hath September, April,June and November". These types of metrical mnemonic are popular f o r they l e t us connect items which seem otherwise unrelated into a rhythmical pattern. Rhyme can be used when the d i f f i c u l t y i n memorization centers around the d i f f i c u l t y of learning the proper ordering. The rhymes esta b l i s h a rule of organization that i s easy to learn and apply. In a sense rhymes ( l i k e most mnemonic devices) serve t h e i r purpose too well; one who r e l i e s on rhymes finds i t d i f f i c u l t to remember one p a r t i c u l a r thing (say how many days hath October?) without r e c a l l i n g the rhyme i n i t s entirety.

One peculiar method, but a su r p r i s i n g l y powerful one, i s to imagine that the various items which are to be learned are located i n d i f f e r e n t physical locations ( l o c i ) . Recall i s accomplished by v i z u a l i z i n g each location and thereby discovering the object. The use of t h i s method was presented i n a book written by the English h i s t o r i a n Dame Frances A Yates, e n t i t l e d The Art of Memory. Yates states i n t h i s book that one of the advantages of t h i s method i s that the various l o c i can be used over and over again f o r d i f f e r e n t memory exercises. She says "The images which we have placed on them f o r remembering one set of things fade and are effaced when we make no further use of them. But the l o c i remain i n the memory and can be used again by placing another set of images f o r another set of material. The l o c i are l i k e the wax tablets which remain when what i s written on them has been effaced and they are ready to be written on again. Hence the l o c i should be chosen with some care".

In a book (Plans and the Structure of Behaviour), written by George M i l l e r , Eugene Galanter and Karl Pribam, the authors describe the Plan method of learning and memory. This can best be described by r e l a t i n g an example: The authors say "Here i s a Plan that you can use for remembering. F i r s t remember that -

One i s a bun Two i s a shoe three i s a tree four i s a door f i v e i s a hive six are sticks seven i s heaven eight i s a gate nine i s a l i n e , and ten i s a hen.

The second part works l i k e t h i s - when we t e l l you a word you must form a ludicrous or bizarre association with the f i r s t word on your l i s t , and so on with the ten words we r e c i t e to you. Here are the words:

1. ashtray 2. firewood 3. picture k. cigarette 5. table 6. matchbook 7. glass 8. lamp 9. shoe 10. phonograph.

In the i n i t i a l experiment the words were read one at a time and a f t e r the word was read the experimenters they waited u n t i l the subject announced that he had the association. I t took about f i v e seconds on the average to form the connection. A f t e r the seventh word he said that he was sure that the f i r s t s i x were already forgotten. But we persevered.

After one t r i a l through the l i s t , we waited a minute or two so that he could c o l l e c t himself and ask any questions that came to mind. Then we said "What i s number eight?" He stared blankly, and then a smile crossed his face " I ' l l be damned" he said "It's 'lamp'" "Arfiwhat number i s cigarette?" He laughed outright now and then gave the correct answer. "And there i s no s t r a i n " he said "absolutely no sweat".

We proceeded to demonstrate that he could i n fact name every

word correctly, and then asked "Do you think that memorizing consists of p i l i n g up increments of response strength that accumulate as the words are repeated?" The question was l o s t i n his amazement.""

We quote the above experiment i n some d e t a i l as i t aptly demonstrates the Plan method of word association for memorization.

Another technique f o r learning long l i s t s of items or numbers i s that known as analytic substitution. Using t h i s method the subject changes numbers into sounds, sounds into words, and words into sentences. Credit f o r t h i s system seems to l i e with Stanislaus Mink von Wenussheim (otherwise known as Winkelmann) who developed a scheme f o r representing numbers by consonants i n 1648. Winkelmann's scheme evidently i s the basis f o r almost every subsequent memory system, altough few people ever gave him cr e d i t . An example of t h i s technique i s as follows. Suppose that you wish to f i n d out what words w i l l translate the date of the settlement of Jamestown, Va, 1607. You place the figures under each other, as below, and then you place at the right hand of each figure the consonants which translate i t .

1 = t, th, d. 6 = sh, j , ch, g soft (as i n gem) 0 = s, z, c soft (as i n cease) 7 = g hard, k, c hard, q and ng.

By experimenting you soon find the following phrases w i l l represent 1607; as "A Dutch Song", "Dash a Sack", "To Wash a Sock", "The Choosing", "The Chasing", "Touches a Key" etc.

This method i s extremely complicated , but i t does seem to work, a l b e i t at the cost of a large i n i t i a l investment by the user i n the time and e f f o r t required to learn the system i n the f i r s t place.

What i s i t about mnemonic systems that improves our a b i l i t y to memorize? A l l the system^s seem to share common emphasis on organization. Evidently one just cannot go about memorizing things as they happen. One has to organize the material, group i t into meaningful structures, form unique and bizarre associations, and tuck i t away i n memory according to a formal orderly plan. I f the material does not lend i t s e l f to v i s u a l i z a t i o n and associations as i t stands, i t must be transformed by the use of key words or analytic substitutions u n t i l images can be used.

The emphasis on the structure of stored material, whether i t be imposed by rhythmic techniques, formally learned memory l o c i , or unique v i v i d imagery, indicates that the d i f f i c u l t y i n memorizing material has more to do with r e t r i e v a l than with storage i t s e l f . I f storage d f information

were the bottleneck, one would hardly wish to use a mnemonic device which increased the amount of information to be stored. Yet every technique we have examined appears to do just that. Nowhere i n the l i t e r a t u r e i s a Sy Stem which t r i e s to condense and simplify the material; every system enriches and adds to the information. The implication i s that organization plays an important role i n r e t r i e v a l .

RETRIEVAL OF MEMORY.

In the previous part of t h i s paper we have been ta l k i n g about intentional memorization of sometimes d i f f i c u l t and unrelated material, and how t h i s material can be retrieved on cue and at short notice. But the intentional memorization of material i s only a small part of our whole memory system. There are those who say that every single experience we.have had i n our entire l i v e s i s stored i n our memory bank, and can be retrieved under right and favourable circumstances. The problem, they say, i s not absorbing the memory, i t i s in the a b i l i t y to r e c a l l and retrieve that memory when required. One's a b i l i t y to learn, they say, i s a r e f l e c t i o n only of the a b i l i t y to retrieve material from our memory system. We only use some ten per cent of our brain power say these same people, the other ninety-per cent i s generally unused. I f we could only c a l l t h i s other 90$ into everyday use we would a l l be super geniuses. I t i s c e r t a i n l y true that a very large part of our experiences are l o s t to immediate r e c a l l , and there i s a great deal of truth i n the above statements. We would l i k e to expound l a t e r i n th i s paper, however, about the p o s s i b i l i t y that some experiences, and perhaps thoughts, are completely l o s t through the mechanism of what we c a l l 'house-keeping dreams'. However for the moment, l e t us accept the statement that no experience i s t o t a l l y l o s t from our memory banks, and that i f we only had the r i g h t key we could both unlock a l l these memories, and become i n s t a n t l y able to learn anything we wished i n a short space of time.

The average layperson, confronted with the p o s s i b i l i t y that h i s or her memory bank i s s t i l l loaded with a l l the experiences of a l i f e t i m e , finds i t d i f f i c u l t to believe that the brain could contain so much information. However, of recent years, following the invention and extensive use of computer systems, i t i s possible to understand that t h i s could indeed be possible. Books have been written l i k e n i n g the brain to some kind of super-computer, and people today, e s p e c i a l l y young people born during the computer age, have no d i f f i c u l t y i n r e l a t i n g to t h i s concept. I t i s true that although memories fade with the passage of time, the average person i s able to r e c a l l incidents, people, events, connected with t h e i r very early childhood. The lessons learned i n childhood

remain with us throughout our l i f e t i m e . Certainly, there i s some degree of reinforcement, and material not needed tends to fade into the background of memory, whilst other material, regularly used, i s fresh and e a s i l y r e c a l l e d .

Of recent years much attention has been paid to methods directed not so much at learning material, but at how to retrieve material already present, or somewhat casually learnt. The implication of some of these methods i s that one does not need to a c t i v e l y learn material f o r i t to become part of the memory system, but one needs to know how to retrieve t h i s material.

Much attention has been given to methods which involve the subjects being put, or putting themselves, i n an altered state of consciousness i n order to ef f e c t t h i s r e t r i e v a l . The suggestions are that i t i s possible to make contact with the 'subconscious' self, the supposedly inactive part of the brain, where memories are stored, and i n t h i s state of mind learn both the a b i l i t y to memorize and retrieve given information.

The layperson w i l l be aware of an everyday experience common to most. In an e f f o r t to r e c a l l an elusive memory many people w i l l state they w i l l 'sleep on i t ' , meaning that they w i l l sleep that night, with a desire i n t h e i r minds to consciously r e t r i v e the wanted information, and during the passage of sleep, the mind w i l l , i n some mysterious way, search and retrieve the looked for answer. Many many people can relate instances of how information has been retrieved from memory during sleep that they could not consciously r e c a l l when awake. During the sleeping and dreaming process the conscious mind and the subconscious mind (for want of better words to express t h i s phenomenon) w i l l communicate and the information retrieved into the conscious mind, ready f o r use when the subject awakens.

Some people believe that input of information into the memory can be achieved during the sleeping state, and many students, before an examination go to bed the nights before with a tape recorder under t h e i r pillow, the tape r e c i t i n g the information they may be needed to know i n the next days. They believe that they can store information i n t h i s way. In a sim i l a r way, many people believe that they can learn a language more e f f e c i e n t l y i f they sleep with a tape recorder playing messages i n the chosen language while they sleep.

Building on these ideas, several experimenters have de-vised learning systems which, as we have said, depend on the learner being placed i n an altered state of consciousness, e i t h e r self-induced, or induced by the experimenter.

One of the most well-known and popular of such methods was devised by a Bulgarian, Dr. Lozanov, working at h i s In s t i t u t e of Suggestology and Parapsychology. His methods started to become known to the western world i n the early 1970's. Dr. Lozanov was interested i n the learning experience but also i n h i s methods as developing a person's own s p i r i t u a l a b i l i t i e s , and healing powers. Nevertheless h i s methods f o r r e c a l l of memory seemed to be spectacular, and met with great interest among people who were not necessarily interested i n the psychic or s p i r i t u a l aspects of the method. By 1976 there were seventeen public schools i n Bulgaria which were using h i s methods f o r teaching children, and our own Government i n Ottawa set up some experimental programmes i n state schools i n the c a p i t a l . The programme i s obviously useful, e s p e c i a l l y i n helping children with learning d i s a b i l i t i e s , and i s currently used i n some schools i n the western world.

The method i s r e l a t i v e l y simple, and one that we have become accusomted to of recent years, combining as i t does, some of the methods of self-hypnosis used by eastern yogis, and methods of self-hypnotism, coupled with reinforcement and assurance that the subject can perform the tasks he or she i s expecting to do. Many commercial methods have grown out of t h i s o r i g i n a l work, and along with the technique of biofeedback, which has also become well-known and well-used i n recent years, many people are f a m i l i a r with, and use one or other of these methods i n t h e i r d a i l y l i f e .

However, i t i s important to remember one or two points when advocating these methods of learning. As we have said e a r l i e r , we do, as individuals, seem to have d i f f e r i n g capacities f o r absorbing information and thereby memories. I f the brain i s damaged, eithe r by trauma, or chemical inbalance, no amount of attempts at r e t r i e v a l can r e c a l l what has not been recorded. I f the tape-recorder i s faulty, and the message has not been recorded, i t cannot be retrieved; i f the computer has not been properly programmed i t cannot feed back the information. And, more importantly, information i s recorded i n varying manner -we do not just r e g i s t e r information l i k e a tape-recorder; i t i s coloured by our own emotions, expectations, experiences, and desires. The same material fed into d i f f e r e n t people's memories may come out so d i f f e r e n t l y as to be completely unrecognizable as the same material. I t i s very important not to look at the brain exactly as i f i t were indeed a computer or tape recorder. I t i s not a simple automatic process by any manner of means.

We w i l l expand further on the u n r e l i a b i l i t y of memory in a l a t e r section devoted to the value of eye-witness testimony. But when discussing the various methods advocated to improve memory one needs to look a l i t t l e c l o s e l y at the role of hypnotism. Methods of self-hypnosis are r e l a t i v e l y harmless, and are ce r t a i n l y most valuable tools i n a s s i s t i n g the subject to r e c a l l general everyday information. The use of an outside hypnotist i n memory r e c a l l i s another matter e n t i r e l y . Hypnotized subjects are i n an extremely suggestible state, and may, i n fact be fantasizing when asked to r e c a l l events- that have happened to them.

HYPNOSIS AND MEMORY.

Most people believe that a hypnotist can a s s i s t a subject to r e c a l l memories that have apparently been forgotten. While t h i s may be true when something simple and dire c t , such as a mathematical table learned i n early childhood, i s involved, i n most other aspects of memory r e c a l l the claims may well be f a l l a c i o u s . Hypnosis has reached a degree of popularity as a t o o l f o r using i n helping witnesses of crimes to r e c a l l d e t a i l s of the event.

As we have said e a r l i e r , i n order f o r a memory to be retrieved i t has to have been registered in the f i r s t place. We have seen how much of what we experience goes immediately into short term memory, and some of i t does, i n fact, seem to be r e a l l y l o s t beyond r e c a l l . While our brains do retain, consciously or unconsciously, a tremendous amount of t r i v i a l material, and keep th i s material f o r a long period of time, there i s no doubt that an enormous amount of ir r e l e v a n t material i s not retained. We do not remember every person we have met on the street, every conversation with every shop assistant, every word we have read i n a book or newspaper some material i s indeed t o t a l l y discarded. A l o t of t h i s material i s discarded instantly, and so, while a person witnessing a crime might very well be able to r e c a l l some incidents immediately subsequent to the event, as presumably some impact i s made on the memory and learning processes, things that may have happened immediately before the crime might very well have not been registered, and thus are not available.

Another factor i n the use of a hypnotist i s the fact that i n the suggestible state that i s produced under hypnosis, the subject develops a relationship, a rapport, with the hypnotist and i n a fashion rather similar to the relationship betweem

a p s y c h i a t r i s t and h i s patient, there i s present a desire to please, a subconscious wish to produce the 'memory' that the hypnotist i s hoping for. This i s p a r t i c u l a r l y l i a b l e to happen i f the hypnotist himself gives unconscious clues as to h i s expectations. So, often t o t a l l y innocently, the subject w i l l produce the memories the hypnotist i s expecting and hoping for.

I t has been proved by experimenters during recent years that hypnosis i s most useful i n r e c a l l i n g v i s u a l images; that e i d e t i c imagery, that v i v i d , near-total r e c a l l of images, which i s almost exclusively a talent of childhood, can be recovered by mature subjects under hypnosis. A reviewer of one such a r t i c l e makes the following comments: "The r e s u l t s of Relinger's survey makes one wonder whether the human brain i s s p e c i a l l y "wired" of" b u i l t to e f f i c i e n t l y handle v i s u a l imagery that i s 'meaningful' i n the contect of human experience and theoretical expectations. This kind of construction i s quite d i f f e r e n t from computer memories which process meaningless data as e a s i l y as meaningful data. UFOs, sea monsters, N-rays, etc. might just be e i d e t i c images from human memories evoked by certain stimuli and encouraged by suggestion.

F i n a l l y , when tal k i n g about hypnosis, the hypnotist i s only able to retrieve what the subject him or herself believes to be the true memory, whether that memory indeed has r e a l i t y or not. Increasingly we become aware that memory i s not just a f l a t record, l i k e a tape recording, or a photograph, but what i s stored i n our memory banks i s altered and coloured by other aspects of our personality. We are a l l t o t a l l y d i f f e r e n t as individuals, and just as our perceptions of our everyday surroundings d i f f e r , so does what we store i n our memories vary, even of the same, perhaps simple and mundane event. Endless experiments have been done to prove t h i s , and we can a l l devise our own experiments, indeed many ex i s t i n the form of party games which we have a l l played at some time or another.

THE FANTASY-PRONE PERSONALITY.

Of recent years some very inte r e s t i n g work has been done on researching what has become known as f eThe Fantasy-Prone Personality!" We attach a copy of a report on t h i s subject by Sheryl C. Wilson and Theodore Barber of Cushing Hospital, Framlingham, Massachusetts and produced i n September 1982. Research has shown that a surprisingly high proportion of the population i s to some degree fantasy-prone, and between 5 and 10% of the population i s so affected that they are at times unable to distinguish r e a l i t y from fantasy.

This, of course, w i l l have an obvious e f f e c t on memory and r e c a l l .

Typically, the fantasy-prone subjects as children l i v e d i n a make-believe world much of the time. They believed t h e i r toys were a l i v e , had feelings, and had a unique personality. More than h a l f played and interacted with imaginary companions, reporting that they c l e a r l y saw, heard, and f e l t them i n the same way they perceived l i v i n g people and animals.

The fantasizers t y p i c a l l y reported that when they were children they would become one of the characters i n a book they were reading, they would see, hear, f e e l and experience the character's l i f e . Sometimes characters from these books became imaginary companions.

When these fantasizers become adults the extensiveness and vividness of t h e i r fantasies do not s i g n i f i c a n t l y decrease. From a very young age, and continuing into the present, they t y p i c a l l y spend a large part of t h e i r l i f e f antasizing, they f e e l they p r a c t i c a l l y l i v e t h e i r l i v e s in fantasy. They have a secret fantasy l i f e which they reveal to no one. Fantasizing i s as necessary to them as eating or sleeping. The a r t i c l e goes on to state that s i x t y - f i v e of the fantasizers usually experience t h e i r fantasies "as r e a l as r e a l " (as hallucinatory) i n a l l sense modalities. They see equally well with t h e i r eyes open or closed, imagined aromas are smelled, sounds are heard, and t a c t i l e sensations are f e l t as convincingly as those •produced by actual sti m u l i . Their memories are also hallucinatory. When immersed in fantasy they do not ask whether t h e i r experiences are r e a l .

A s t r i k i n g c h a r a c t e r i s t i c shared by most of the fantasy-prone p e r s o n a l i t i e s i s t h e i r unusual v i v i d personal memories. When they are r e c a l l i n g a past experience they bring i t into the present space and time, r e c a l l i n g and re-experiencing the sensations they f e l t i n the o r i g i n a l s i t u a t i o n . In contrast, subjects i n a control group, when r e c a l l i n g a previous experience remember back, and the experience i s i n the past, not i n the present.

These fantasizing subjects also appear to have l i t t l e childhood amnesia. Many of them have v i v i d memories of events that occurred before t h e i r t h i r d birthday. However, a small number of these fantasizers have amnesia f o r cert a i n times and events i n t h e i r l i v e s , p a r t i c u l a r l y i n regard to p a i n f u l or traumatic happenings, the motiviation not to

r e c a l l unpleasant events can become exceptionally strong, as they tend to r e l i v e the experience and to f e e l the associated emotions as i f they are occurring i n the present.

This study resulted from work done to f i n d out the kind of personality most l i k e l y to respond to hypnotism. The fantasy-prone pers o n a l i t i e s studied were a l l excellent hypnotic subjects.

From the above study i t seems clear that memory functions i n d i f f e r e n t ways i n d i f f e r e n t people, and on a much wider basis than was previously supposed. I t i s clear, that f o r many people, memory i s t o t a l l y unreliable, since when the memories were stored i n the f i r s t place the subject wag „ unable to distinguish between fantasy and r e a l i t y . n ^ 0

rest of the population may f a l l p a r tly into the role of the fanta sy-prone.

FORGETTING.

I t seems appropriate to write a few l i n e s about the process of forgetting, and why we forget; with perhaps some speculation as to how t h i s forgetting i s accomplished.

Studies have shown c l e a r l y that we a l l , i n some degree or another, forget, or attempt to forget, unpleasant and traumatic experiences. These, however, are not so much forgotten, as repressed and buried deep i n our memory system, and they may be retrieved either by some l a t e r association, or by means of hypnosis.

In the same way we dismiss, and deliberately attempt to forget facts and events which do not inter e s t us, and again some of these memories can be retrieved at a l a t e r date, either through an unexpected need to r e c a l l , or by hypnosis.

But other experiences seem to become t o t a l l y erased, i n spite of the popular theory that nothing, once experienced, i s completely forgotten. Some of these have been mentioned i n the course of t h i s a r t i c l e ; people passed on the streets, casual conversations of the one-of-a-kind variety, and the l i k e . We would l i k e also to include i n t h i s category the casual thoughts and mental observations that one experiences during the course of a day. We haven't paid much attention to thoughts, but these are just as much a part of our d a i l y experience as other events.

We believe that many of these memory traces are dealt with during the dreaming process. We have been studying the function of dreams for many years, and as readers of our e a r l i e r paper w i l l r e c a l l we mentioned 'house-cleaning' as a function of dreaming. We did not elaborate unduly on t h i s aspect i n that paper, but we were r e f e r r i n g to the generally held b e l i e f that one of the functions of dreaming i s to, so to speak, t i d y up the various events of the day that have occurred, and deal with the memories. These dreams usually occur i n the e a r l i e r part of the night, and so, unless one b r i e f l y awakens around two or three o'clock, and i s able to remember the dream immediately preceding the awakening, t h i s material i s usually l o s t . These dreams are also,(unless one has trained oneself to record immediately,) completely forgotten before morning, and prove almost i f not t o t a l l y impossible to r e c a l l . I t i s our b e l i e f that t h i s i s the process by which the t r i v i a l events of the day are forgotten, including the thoughts and mental processes that do not need to be retained.

We would l i k e to i l l u s t r a t e t h i s by a recent example. One of us (IMO) had a p a r t i c u l a r l y busy day recently when several events occurred that would be stored i n long-term memory. A conversation was held with an old friend, revealing some dramatic information; a f i l m was seen that was both interesting, and dramatic, and we went out to dinner i n the evening. There was a great deal of material i n the day to comprise the s t u f f of dreams. But I (IMO) did not dream anything related to these events. I awoke at around 2 p.m. having dreamed a very f a n c i f u l and elaborate dream, involving a long ride i n the car, when we had on one occasion to brake suddenly i n order to avoid skidding into a ditch - a long country walk, through mud and water, during which I became worried about the cream coloured coat I was wearing and saying to myself,"I w i l l have to get t h i s coat cleaned a f t e r a l l " ; an encounter with a group of teenage boys and g i r l s , a l l dressed i n I r i s h costumes, leading to a discussion with them, and the person I was with about the problems of Ireland - t h i s taking place on the lawns i n front of a large and be a u t i f u l country house. I was e a s i l y able to i d e n t i f y the threads of t h i s dream, and to r e a l i s e that they were the remnants of thoughts I had had during the previous (exciting) day, that had been woven together into a f a n c i f u l whole, destined ( i f I had not recorded i t immediately) to be completely forgotten. During the day I had taken something out of the closet next to the cream coat, and had wondered b r i e f l y , whether I had remembered to have f i cleaned before i t was put away, and then decided i t wasn't important at that time; the car had gone to the garage for tune-up, and the mechanic

had telephoned to say that he had managed to get some brake parts f o r t h i s p a r t i c u l a r type of old car, and would we l i k e them put in, as the brakes were probably getting to the point where they would need attention. I f e l t pleased that t h i s was being done, although we had not been worried about the brakes previously. There had been a programme about Ireland advertised on the t e l e v i s i o n , and I had planned to watch i t , but when we went out to dinner I thought, b r i e f l y , that I would not see the programme. The house where I met the youngsters i n my dream was the house i n which the action i n the f i l m had taken place, and I had thought, while watching, that i t might have been a house I had once v i s i t e d on a tour of h i s t o r i c homes.

The point of t h i s somewhat lengthy explanation i s that a l l the memories that comprised that dream were memories of thoughts, and mental processes, not actual events, and they were strung together i n a f a n c i f u l dream destined to be forgotten. None of the p a r t i c u l a r thoughts were worth remembering or retaining, they had a l l been dealt with. Dreaming may be the method by which we erase the t o t a l l y unecessary memories.

EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY.

How good a witness are we? How good, then i s memory? We have discussed some of what we would l i k e to say here i n s:. previous paper, "Vision and Perceptions Auras and I l l u s i o n s " In that paper we made the point that v i s i o n i s not a separate function, our eyes are CLn i n t e g r a l part of the perception of the brain i t s e l f . Information received through the eyes i s co-ordinated with a l l the other senses, plus our experiences of memory, expectation, emotional state and so on. In the same way, our f a c u l t i e s of memory are not i s o l a t e d from the rest of our perceptions. The way i n which we see, or hear something, the interpretation we put upon the event, our own personality p r o f i l e s , a l l have a bearing on the form i n which the memory i s stored, how accurately i t i s stored, and the p o s s i b i l i t y of i t s r e t r i e v a l . Memory i s , so to speak, the accumulated information stored as a r e s u l t of the perceptions of the brain, as fed i n by a l l the sensory processes (which include the abstract sensory processes such as emotion, imagination, etc. as well as the t a c t i l e processes of touch, smell, e t c . ) . Information fed into the memory process, i n other words, may be distorted from r e a l i t y by emotion, misunderstanding, expectation, or other factors. Such information, when retrieved, by whatever means, w i l l remain distorted and inaccurate. This i s why what we c a l l eye-witness testimony may be t o t a l l y and completely unreliable.

I t i s clear that when assessing memory function, i f the material retrieved i s to be used i n any s i g n i f i c a n t way, i t i s important to discover whether i n fact the stored material

was l i k e l y to "be r e l i a b l e i n the f i r s t place. I t may be easy to retrieve stored memories from certain people, but i f the memories did not r e f l e c t the events they purport to describe with any degree of accuracy, they are then worthless.

HOW TO IMPROVE MEMORY.

To some extent we have so f a r been talking about learning and memory i n relationship to either learning processes as applied to scholastic matters.,, or memory i n r e l a t i o n to events one might wish to r e c a l l . What about the everyday memory processes that enable us to go about our d a i l y l i v i n g with some degree of confidence and a b i l i t y ? As we said at the beginning of t h i s paper we l i t e r a l l y could not l i v e our l i v e s e f f e c t i v e l y i f our memories were not functioning.

I t i s an intere s t i n g paradox that as we grow older our more recent memories tend to fade, whilst memories of early l i f e and childhood remain, or i n some cases seem to grow more v i v i d . Much research i s currently being conducted on the problems of memory and s e n i l i t y , and of diseases of ageing such as Alzheimer's disease. People suffering from Alzheimer's disease, u n t i l f a i r l y recently, were believed to suffer from the e f f e c t s of s e n i l i t y , which were believed to include memory loss. Now i t i s thought that e l d e r l y people are i n fac t just as able to produce r e c a l l of events as younger people; they may just need a l i t t l e longer time to go through the process. Those eld e r l y people who suffer from extensive loss of memory are i n fac t suffering from physical damage to the i r memory systems, either through disease or chemical inbalance. A victim of Alzheimer's disease i s indeed i n sorry s t r a i t s as the disease progresses. He or she i s unable to r e c a l l the most ordinary d e t a i l s , they may forget t h e i r own name, the names of t h e i r nearest and dearest; they may walk out of the door, only to forget immediately where they intended to go, or what they intended to do; they go to the shops only to forget what they came for, and i n most cases they can only function by means of continual written reminders.

But e l d e r l y people i n general suffer varying and smaller memory loss, and as stated, i n most cases, given time, can r e c a l l the necessary material. Attention i s being paid these days by researchers to methods by which one's a b i l i t y to remember can be extended and improved. From such general advice as keeping f i t , the methods range down to recommending that e l d e r l y people regularly take chicken soup, which i s chemically reinforced with l e c i t h i n , a chemical that i s supposed to a f f e c t the chemistry of the brain. The p u r i f i e d l e c i t h i n , i t i s said, raises the blood l e v e l s of choline, a chemical found i n the brain, and thus i t may aid memory. Doses of the substance physostigmine have been used successfully i n experiments to improve long-term memory.

In conclusion, however, we would remind the readers of two basic facts; f i r s t l y that the a b i l i t y to record memories varies with the ind i v i d u a l from b i r t h , and l i t t l e i s r e a l l y known about how to improve t h i s a b i l i t y , any more than one can r e a l l y change the basic a b i l i t y of the brain. There are methods to aid r e c a l l , but i f the material has not been registered then memory aids are useless. Secondly, and most importantly, memory i s part of one's whole experience, i t i s not a separate function, so what i s recorded i n one's memory patterns i s the summation of a t o t a l experience, a l l i e d to emotion, individual experience, expectation, and b e l i e f systems. One's memory i s part of the vast network that comprises a person's whole personality.

FRONTAL "ASSOCIATION"

CORTEX

L O C A L I Z A T I O N S O F F U N C T I O N in the cerebral cortex of monkeys have lieen known in general for many years. T h e evidence ha;, been supplied in part by anatomical tracing of nerve pathway*, and more recently by electrical recording of wave forms, both through the intact skul l and by use of implanted electrodes. SonieMhes-is refers to the set^e of touch.

Some attention has "been given to a presumed chemical basis f o r memory. The motivation i s two f o l d . I t i s true that the conduction of signals i n nerve c e l l s , including those of the brain, a l l 100 b i l l i o n of them, i s i n a sense e l e c t r i c a l , but the process should be more t r u l y described as electrochemical dependent on the io n i z a t i o n of atoms, p a r t i c u l a r l y calcium and sodium, and the flow of such ions. The nerve c e l l s or neurons (neurones) interact with and energize one another via junctions or points of contact c a l l e d synapses which are even more numerous than the neurons, there being some 10 t r i l l i o n of them, because there are some thousand synapses to each neuron on account of the multiple connectivity of the neuronic network. In the energizing of neurons by other neurons i n synaptic transmission various chemical substances play an important role, e s p e c i a l l y choline and acetylcholine, which i n p a r t i c u l a r i s why agents l i k e physostigmine and l e t h i c i n , that modify the reactions of choline or of acetylcholine can improve memory. The second reasoning f o r seeking a chemical basis f o r memory i s empirical. Early theories of memory ascribed i t to the setting up of continued e l e c t r i c a l a c t i v i t y or current flow i n neural c i r c u i t s i n the brain. But i f t h i s were so, i t should be possible to disrupt memory by e l e c t r i c a l interference with the brain, and a number of experiments have been done on the e f f e c t on memory i n animals of electroconvulsive shock and also of convulsions induced by the drug Metrazol, and anethesia r e s u l t i n g from sodium pentabarbitol. I t appears that long-term memory i s e f f e c t i v e l y unimpaired, although short-term memory may f a i l . This suggests that while short-term memory may depend on sustained e l e c t r i c a l a c t i v i t y , long-term memory i s otherwise based.

An obvious candidate f o r the role of "memory molecule" was DNA (deoxyribose nuclei acid) because as a major ( i f not the major) vehicle f o r inheritance DNA i s s t r u c t u r a l l y adapted to carrying genetic "information", as the current fa con de p a r l e r puts i t . The "information" consists i n the sequences of the nucleotides A, G, C and T, i . e . adenine, guanine, ey to sine, and thymine. Different orders y i e l d d i f f e r e n t "words", each word being gene. The genes operate through the intermediacy of the related substance, RNA ( i . e . ribose n u c l e i acid), which has smaller and more mobile molecules than DNA and the nucleotide u r a c i l i n place of thymine, and induce the formation of the enzymes which f a c i l i t a t e most of the b i o l o g i c a l processes that go on i n the l i v i n g organism. Interestingly enough organisms contain large amounts of c e l l u l a r DNA over and above that constituting the genes. This i s given the somewhat approbrious t i t l e of " p a r a s i t i c DNA", based, we hasten to say, on no re a l knowledge of i t s why or wherefore. I t has been the

object of speculation by evolutionary b i o l o g i s t s without any conclusion being arrived at. Similarly, the hypothesis that i t might be the vehicle f o r the storage of memories has been a tempting one. However attempts to a l t e r the DNA content of c e l l s or to induce chemical changes i n i t by such methods as the administration of narcotics or mechanical i r r i t a t i o n of nerve c e l l s , or induction of electroconvulsive shock have a l l f a i l e d . These r e u l t s as well as comparable surveys across animal species, which emphasize the extreme constancy of DNA i n both amount and chemical composition suggest strongly that i t i s f a r too stable a substance to be a vehicle f o r memory. In a way t h i s i s obvious a_ p r i o r i because i t has been well known for f i f t y years or so that the chromosal DNA i s extremely stable and can only be chemically modified by mutagens, that i s to say — v i o l e n t and destructive agents such as mustard gas, radioactive emanations, such as alpha-p a r t i c l e s , electrons or radiation such as X-rays or gamma rays. Thus DNA i s f a r too r i g i d a substance to play therole required of the "memory molecule".

However, a number of theories which we need not go into here, ascribed a central role i n memory to RNA as being l i k e DNA , subject to encoding, but altogether a more f l e x i b l e substance, Actual evidence on RNA comes from several l i n e s of research. Thus the amount of RNA i n neurons has been found to increase a f t e r various kinds of stimulation of rat neural tissue, e i t h e r by sound or by vibration, or by application of e l e c t r i c voltages, or dosing with Metrazol. Correspondingly the RNA content of nerve c e l l s was i n several experiments found to be diminished when the animals were exposed to various forms of shock treatment which may be expected to reduce temporarily the a b i l i t y to remember. These treatments included loud noises, narcosis induced by alcohol or amobarbitol sodium, poisoning of the h a i r c e l l s of the inner ear with arsacetin, and also the expedient of exhausting the rats by overworking them. However against t h i s finding i s the fact that two other studies i n which narcosis was induced with barbituates showed an increase i n RNAJ

The reader may be excused f o r thinking that the work reported above i s rather crude and bears only remotely on the problems of memory. An alternative approach attempts to answer the questi whether drugs which enhance or i n h i b i t RNA synthesis respectively f a c i l i t a t e or i n h i b i t memory. In one piece of research i t transpired that the drug 8-azaguanine (a derivative of the nucleotide guanine) which disrupts RNA metabolism impaired the a b i l i t y of rats to l e s r n to navigate a water maze but did not a f f e c t previously learned a b i l i t i e s of that kind. This r e s u l t could be interpreted to mean that RNA helps to encode memory but some other substance stores i t .

Other work has i n v e s t i g a t e d the e f f e c t s on l e a r n i n g i n v a r i o u s experimental animals such as mice or g o l d f i s h of the an t i b i o t i c actinomycin-D. The i m p l i c a t i o n s are somewhat confusing but suggest that RNA synthesis i s not much in v o l v e d i n l e a r n i n g . Work with other drugs such as pemoline, an enhancer of RNA synthesis appears to cast n o ~ l i g h t oh the r o l e of RNA i n memory (Edward M. Gurowitz, The molecular b a s i s of memory, P r e n t i c e - H a l l , N.J. I969). Experimental intravenous i n j e c t i o n s o f yeast-RNA i n t o both humans and r a t s l e d to e s s e n t i a l l y negative r e s u l t s .

As e a r l y as 1950 J . J . Katz and W.C. Halstead i n t h e i r paper " P r o t e i n o r g a n i z a t i o n and mental f u n c t i o n " (Comparative Psychology Monograph ?0> 1-38) proposed a theory o f memory a s s i g n i n g a c e n t r a l r o l e to p r o t e i n s . I t was not taken up u n t i l c onsiderably l a t e r . Some support f o r the r o l e of p r o t e i n i n memory was got i n the 1960's from experiments on the e f f e c t o f TCAP (a v a r i e t y o f tricydno-amino-propene) on maze-running by r a t s whose performance i t d i d not improve. However t h e i r "avoidance c o n d i t i o n i n g " was quicker; a b i l i t y to l e a r n to avoid something nasty l i k e an e l e c t r i c shock. I n consequence o f t h i s and s e v e r a l other experiments i t seems tha t TCAP does have somewhat o f a favourable e f f e c t on l e a r n i n g . Because TCAP enhances both RNA and p r o t e i n metabolism the i m p l i c a t i o n i s u n c e r t a i n . Various i n h i b i t o r s o f p r o t e i n s y n t h e s i s have been studied f o r t h e i r e f f e c t s on memory i n mice. Thus i n j e c t i o n s of the a n t i b i o t i c puromycin i n t o the temporal regions t o t a l l y a n n i h i l i a t e d short-term memories of recen,t maze-running t r a i n i n g . Long term memories could a l s o be annulled but t h i s r e q uired the puromycin to be i n j e c t e d i n t o much more extensive regions of the b r a i n (temporal + f r o n t a l + v e n t r i c u l a r ) . This work i s therefore (although i n an i n c i d e n t a l fashion) in f o r m a t i v e i n a s l i g h t degree as to the l o c a l i z a t i o n o f short and long term memory s t o r e s .

I n the 1960's enormous i n t e r e s t and popular journalism were engendered by experiments r e l a t i n g to the biochemical t r a n s f e r o f l e a r n i n g a r t i f i c i a l l y from one animal to another. A great deal of t h i s work was done with p l a n a r i a n s , i . e . flatworms. A plana r i f t n i s a f l a t arrow-shaped worm about an in c h long t h a t l i v e s i n f r e s h water. Dr. James V. McConnell and h i s group a t the U n i v e r s i t y o f Michigan t r a i n e d flatworms to f i e e from a l i g h t i n t h e i r tank i n order to avoid r e c e i v i n g an e l e c t r i c shock. The bodies o f these t r a i n e d flatworms were then groumup and fed to naive ( i . e . untrained) ones. I t was claimed t h a t the l a t t e r learned the avoidance response f a s t e r than those which had been fed on the f l e s h of other naive animals. Reports o f t h i s work created a great impression. However a f t e r f u r t h e r years of study and attempts to r e p l i c a t e the work by other researchers, i t

became evident that there may have been serious methodological flaws i n the inves t iga t ion — errors of several k inds , s t a t i s t i c a l ana lys i s , experimenter b ias , and "confounding" of various f a c t o r s . The r e s u l t s therefore have tended to f a l l into disrepute .

However the work with flatworms stimulated research on memory trans fer i n ra t s or mice. Thus i n one study, donor ra t s were tra ined to approach a food cup when a c l i c k i n g noise was sounded. RNA extracted from the donors' bra ins was injected into untrained r e c i p i e n t s and a s i m i l a r extract from naive donors was injected into rats of a contro l group. The f i r s t group wei?e found to l earn to react to the c l i c k more qu ick ly than the contro l group. A s i m i l a r r e s u l t was got using tra ined hamsters as donors and ra t s as r e c i p i e n t s . S i m i l a r experiments have not however been unequivocal ly success fu l . Even i f the e f fec t t r u l y occurs i t i s not yet c l e a r that the vehic le of memory trans fer i s RNA and not associated traces of pro te in or peptide i n the b r a i n ex trac t s . Many v a r i a t i o n s on t h i s experiment have been done and by quite d i f f e r e n t research teams. D i f f erent kinds of b r a i n extracts have been used f o r trans fer . Some extracts have been intended to consist mainly of RNA. Other workers have used extracts treated with the enzyme RNAse i n order to remove the RNA before i n j e c t i o n . In consequence of p o s i t i v e r e s u l t s obtained i n experiments of t h i s l a t t e r type some researchers , such as Dr. Georges Ungar of Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, bel ieve that the memory molecules are pept ides .

We do not know the present status o f opinion i n respect of one o f the most pub l i c i s ed claims for t rans fer , that made by Ungar and Burzynsky concerning the peptide scotophobin (a name coined from the Greek meaning "fear of the dark") . This compound was synthesized by them i n the laboratory having prev ious ly been i so la ted from the brains of ra t s tra ined to avoid darkness. In the t r a i n i n g programme each r a t was offered a choice between a wel l l i gh ted box and a dark one. I f i t s preference was f o r darkness i t got an e l e c t r i c shock, Such ra t s conditioned to fear the dark were used as donors. I t i s claimed that t h e i r b r a i n extracts when injected into untrained ra t s , caused the l a t t e r to spontaneously avoid the dark. Ungar and Burzynsky claimed also that the synthesized peptide scotophobin causes not only ra t s but also mice and even go ld f i sh to show an unnatural aversion to the dark when in jec ted with i t i Despite these s t r i k i n g claims however> looking over the whole f i e l d of b r a i n extract experiments one has to say that on account of inconsis tent f indings by d i f f e r e n t teams as wel l as methodological problems, the question of in ter -animal memory trans fer s t i l l appears to be i n considerable doubt, thus deferr ing the hope expressed by Journa l i s t s some years ago that i n times ahead one might be able to l earn a d i s c i p l i n e such as music or mathematics by taking a p i l l . '

The subject of l o c a l i z a t i o n of funct ion i n the bra in i s a complex one, as the reader can ascer ta in f o r example from Richard F . Thompson's very up-to-date t rea t i s e The Bra in ( i t f .H . Freeman, New York, 1985). Researchers i n the 19^0 1s and 1950's such as Lashley and Sperry were impressed by the fac t that quite extensive les ions of the cerebra l cortex (the t h i n l ayer of grey matter to which the higher b r a i n functions are ascribed) permanently impair the functions of seeing, hearing recognit ions and memory to a l e s ser degree than would be expected. A permently damaged b r a i n shows more eventual res torat ion of funct ion than could be predicted from a knowledge of the extent o f the damage. This c e r t a i n l y shows that bra in functions inc lud ing memory are not l o c a l i z e d with t o t a l p r e c i s i o n . The fac t , although true, has i n our opinion been gross ly exaggerated even by people who should know bet ter . Quite wi ld assert ions are made,without i n our view any adequate j u s t i f i c a t i o n , such as the claim that f u l l b r a i n funct ion can ex i s t i n decort icate humans! Indeed the most recent work seems to show how, f o r example, features of v i s u a l experience are "mapped" i n the cortex. I t would appear therefore that the prec ise meaning to be ascr ibed to the term n o n - l o c a l i z a t i o n needs a new and more care fu l a n a l y s i s . However i t i s legi t imate to argue that l o c a l i z a t i o n o f other funct ions dpes not necessar i ly imply the l o c a l i z a t i o n of memory.

In t h i s connection recent words of Dr . Rupert Sheldrake i n h i s new, rev ized and augmented e d i t i o n o f h i s book on "Formative Causation, A New Science of L i f e , Anthony Blond, London, U.K. 19$5) ought to be considered. I f we should be forced to "the seemingly paradoxical conclusion that memory i s both everywhere and nowhere" then we might look to the phenomenon o f "morphic resonance" as the e s sent ia l memory mechanism. Memory i n t h i s view i s the working of the morphogenetic f i e l d set up by our own past thoughts and sensations. Thus "the hypothesis o f formative causation provides an a l t ernat ive i n t e r p r e t a t i o n , i n the l i g h t of which the persistence o f learned habi ts i n spi te of damage to the b r a i n i s f a r l e s s puzz l ing i the habi t s depend on motor f i e l d s which are not stored within the b r a i n at a l l but are given d i r e c t l y from i t s past states by morphic resonance".

m

mi

mi

FRONT

V 3 V4 V 5 V 6 VTE Surface of cerebrum covered with cerebral cortex

Highly schematic repre­sentation of some of the visual areas in the cerebral cortex of the monkey. Each visual area has a ret­inal projection: a map or layout of the visual field (actually of the left half of the visual field since the right hemisphere is shown).

•m1

m

m

Complex cell (binocular

mt

[ | Contralateral eye

| | lpsilateral eyt

Lateral geniculate nucleus

The projections from the eyes to the lateral geniculate body to layer IV of the visual cortex. The top layer and fourth layer of the lateral geniculate (6c and Ac) receive input from the opposite side (con­tralateral) eye and project to one column of cells in layer IV of the visual cortex (IVrj, whereas the same side eye (ipsilateral) projects to layers 5;' and 3/, which in turn project to the next column of cells in layer IV of the cortex (IVi). (After S. W. Kufifler and J. G. Nicholls, From Neuron to Brain. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, 1977.)

t t 1 f I I I *

TUB PANTASY—PRONR PERSONALITY: IMPLICATIONS POR UHDKRSTANDINC IHACKRY,

HYPNOSIS, AND PARAPSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA*

Shcryl C. Wilson and Theodore X* Barber Cubbing Hospital, Framlngham, Massachusetts

Interviews In depth, focusing on childhood and adult memories, f a n t a s i e s , and psychic experiences, were conducted with 27 women who had been c o n s i s t e n t l y rated as e x c e l l e n t hypnotic subjects and a comparison group of 25 women who had been rated as non-excellent (poor, medium, and medium good) h y p n o t i c s u b j e c t s . With one exception, the excellent hypnotic subjects, but not the comparison sub j e c t s , had a profound fantasy l i f e ; their fantasies were often "as real as l i f e " (hallucinatory), and their deep involve­ment i n fantasy played an important r o l e i n pvoductlng t h e i r superb hypnotic performance. The data i n d i c a t e that e x c e l l e n t hypnotic subjects derive largely from a small percentage (possibly 4%) of the normal population who can be labeled as fantasy-prone p e r s o n a l i t i e s (fantaslrers) since t h i s seems to be t h e i r most fundamental characteristic which serves as the matrix from which their other talents arise. In addition to becoming involved In fantasy very deeply and very o f t e n , e x c e l l e n t hypnotic subjects a l s o report v i v i d sensory experiences, v i v i d memories of their very e a r l y and more recent l i f e experiences, a b i l i t i e s as "healers," and numerous telepathic, p r c c o g n l t l v e , and other psychic experiences. -Author's abstract.

* An abridged version of the a r t i c l e to be published i n i t s e n t i r e t y In: A.A. Sh e l k l n , ed., Imagery: Current Theory, Research, and Application (New York: Jolw Wiley) In 19B2. The authors are Indebted to Susan Myers, Susan King Ctmbrelo, Dr. Steven Jay Lynn, and Michael R. Ncish for their assistance.

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Subjects

To date we hove administered our hnttery of tents mid Interviews to 52 women subjects, of whom 27 were excellent hypnotic subjects and the remaining 25 were spread throughout the low, medium, and medium-high range of hypnotic responsiveness. With two exceptions, these women have attended college or nre college graduates. One Is nn MD ( p s y c h i a t r i s t ) , one n PhD (ps y c h o l o g i s t ) , 4 nre PhD candidates In psychology, 10 have BA's or MA's In psychology or counseling, 9 have a bachelor or master's degree In other areas, and 25 are college students. Their age Is from 19 to 63 with a mean of 28.

Procedure

Although there were some variations i n the order of te s t a d m i n i s t r a t i o n , t y p i c a l l y , we f i r s t evaluated the subjects for Imaginative a b i l i t y and hypnotic responsiveness by administering the Creative Imagination Scale (1-3J. This Scale i s a standardized Instrument which measures equally well (a) responsiveness to guided Imaging and (b) respon­siveness to hypnotic suggestions which emphasize the ltnag l n l n g - h a l l u c l n a t o r y aspects of hypnosis. The s c a l e Includes ten items which ask the subjects to imagine, for example, that: a Btroop stream of water from a garden hose Is pushing against the palm of t h e i r outstretched hand (pushing the hand up); novocains has been injected Into the side of t h e i r hand (making two f i n g e r s numb); they are "liearing" music; feeling the sun slilnlng on the right hand (creating heat); or re-experlenclng themselves as children In elementary school.

After the subjects had been evaluated on the Creative Imagination Scale, . they were tested on the Barber Suggestibility Scale U,4j, which essences responsiveness to eight suggestions of the type commonly used In hypnotic experiments (hand lock, verbal Inhibition, body immobility, posthypnotic response, selective amnesia, etc.).

Typically, subjects who responded In a profound way and passed a l l or v i r t u a l l y a l l of the items on the Creative Imagination Scale and the Barber Suggestibility Scale were

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further tested by administering one or more tr a d i t i o n a l or n o n - l r a d l t l o n n i hypnotic i n d u c t i o n procedures 15-8], a s e r i e s of suggestions such as those included i n the Stanford H y p n o t i c S u s c e p t i b i l i t y S c a l e s (9,10], and s e v e r a l additional suggestions, for example, to experience extreme happiness, a superconsclous state, a mystical state, or a pas t l i f e . Thus, according to our c r i t e r i a , e x c e l l e n t hypnotic subje^s.responded easily, quickly, and f u l l y to a l a r g e v a r i e t y of suggestions i n c l u d i n g the c l a s s i c a l hypnotic suggestions for anesthesia, r i g i d i t y , positive and negative h a l l u c i n a t i o n s , age regression, post-hypnotic behavior, amnesia, etc.

Subjects who did not respond profoundly and pass most. of the items on tlte Creative Imagination Test and the Barber Suggestibility Scale were considered non-excellent hypnotic B i i b j e c t s and were not tested f u r t h e r f o r hypnotic responsiveness, but were Interviewed as described below.

Interviews

After being evaluated on the Creative Imagination Scale and the other t e s t s i n the manner described above, each subject was interviewed i n d i v i d u a l l y on the Memory, Imagining, and C r e a t i v i t y Interview Schedule. We f i r s t constructed an Interview schedule w i t h 88 questions, of which 73 covered areas such as: early childhood memories, childhood and adult fantasies, empathy and role playing as a chil d and as an adult, feelings about s e l f , sleep behaviors, hypnagogic Imagery, ha l l u c i n a t o r y imagery, psychosomatic l l n e s s e a , psychic e x p e r i e n c e s , and ou t - o f - t h e - b o d y experiences. We also included 15 additional questions tha t Josephine R. Illlgard 111] had found to be correlated with hypnotic susceptibility. These questions pertained to the subject's degree of involvement In such areas as reading, dramatic a r t B , r e l i g i o n , sensory experiences, and to I d e n t i f i c a t i o n w i t h parents, s e v e r i t y of c h i l d h o o d punishment, and motivation to experience hypnosis. As we continued interviewing additional subjects, we occasionally added new questions to amplify the origi n a l questions and, as a result, the Mempryi Imaging, and Creativity Interview Schedule now contains 100 items.

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The length of time required to interview each subject v a r i e d d r a s t i c a l l y , depending p r i m a r i l y upon the extenslvene8s of her memories and fantasy l i f e . Interviews of subjects who were deeply involved In fantasy required a minimum of four hours and, with the two most verbal, as much as 32 hours. The subjects who were low on fantasy could be interviewed i n much less time, often i n about two hours, since they simply answered "no" to many of the questions thus their responses could not be probed for details.

Summary of Results

Hie findings supported our conjecture that women who score extremely high on the Creative Imagination Scale and who, i n addition, are excellent hypnotic subjects also share unusual characteristics which enable us to consider them an fantasy-prone i n d i v i d u a l s . Although our 27 e x c e l l e n t hypnotic subjects d i f f e r e d markedly In personality (e.g., some were extravcrted and others Introverted, some were high and otbera low on self-esteem), 26 of the 27 shared a series of interrelated characteristics, a syndrome or personality type that we are labeling as the fantasy-prone personality or fantnslzer. One of the excellent hypnotic subjects and a l l 25 of the non-excellent hypnotic subjects differed from the fantasizers i n their answers to the interview questions on fantasy (and also to questions about memories, psychic experiences, etc.) and thus could not be labeled as fantasy-prone p e r s o n a l i t i e s . In t h i s l i m i t e d space we w i l l not attempt to analyze why one of the e x c e l l e n t hypnotic subjects d i f f e r e d from the others In that she was not especially Involved In fantasy. This anomalous subject i s Important, however, In leading to a q u a l i f i e d conclusion; namely, that a very large percentage, but not a l l , excellent female hypnotic subjects appear to be fantasy-prone personalities.

Some Characteristics Shared by Fantasy-prone Individuals During Childhood and Adulthood

As children, the 26 fantasy-prone subjects liv e d In n make-believe world much of ths time. A l l Who played with

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dolls and toy animals (80X) believed the toys were a l i v e , had feelings, and had a unique personality. More than half of the fan t a s I t e r s (58%), as compared to 81 In the comparison group, spent a large part of their time during childhood ploying and Interacting with imaginary companions (fantasized people or animals), reporting that they cl e a r l y saw, heard, and f e l t them In the same way they perceived l i v i n g people and animals.

The fantasizers t y p i c a l l y reported that when they were children they would become one of the cliaracters i n a book they were reading; they would see, hear, f e e l , and experience the character's l i f e (Bee also (11]). Sometimes characters from these books became Imaginary companions.

When fantasizers become adults, the extenslveness and vividness of their fantasies do not si g n i f i c a n t l y decrease. From a very young age and continuing into the present, they t y p i c a l l y spend a large part of t h e i r time f a n t a s i z i n g . They view imagining or f a n t a s i z i n g as c e n t r a l to t h e i r l i v e s , feeling they pra c t i c a l l y l i v e their l i v e s i n fantasy.

Typically each subject has a secret fantasy l i f e which site has revealed to no one. I t can be said that somewhere in the transition from childhood to adulthood they became " c l o s e t f a n t a s i z e r s . " Their extensive, v i v i d fantasizing has become their carefully guarded secret - often even their husbands, children, and closest friends are unaware of l t l When asked to estimate what percent of their waking day they spend fantasizing, 92Z of the fantasy-prone subjects (and none of the subjects In the comparison group) estimated more than 50% of the time. Imagining or f a n t a s i z i n g i s as necessary utid i n t e g r a l to t h e i r l i v e s as sleeping and eating. Many compared the loss of fantasy to the loss of one or more of the senses, especially v i s i o n - It would be l i k e going b l i n d . Ti l l s u s u a l l y was followed by an expression of doubt as to whether they could continue l i v i n g more than a few hours without fantasizing.

S i x t y - f i v e percent of the f a n t a s i z e r s u s u a l l y e x p e r i e n c e t h e i r f a n t a s i e s "as r e a l as r e a l " (as hallucinatory) In a l l sense m o d a l i t i e s . They see Imagined sights equally well with their eyes open or closed. Also, imagined aromas are sensed, sounds are heard, and t a c t i l e sensations are f e l t as convincingly nu those produced by

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actual s t i m u l i . Their memories, which we w i l t describe later In t h i s paper, are also hallucinatory. When they r e c a l l an event, they are able to r e - \,.erlence I t and r e l i v e i t again, seeing, hearing, and feeling I t in much the same way they d i d o r i g i n a l l y . In a d d i t i o n , t h e i r fantasies and memories t y p i c a l l y seem to be located i n the outside environment; f o r example, when we ask them e i t h e r to remember or Imagine n dog, they see i t run Into the room, fe e l i t l i c k their face, etc. Furthermore, they react to their memories and fantnsles with feelings nnd emotions that would be opproprlate i f what they were hallucinating was actually occurring In the present space nnd time. Some of these subjects describe their fantasies as being l i k e a good movie, except better because they are In the movie. Tlicy can experience anything In fantasy - people can be seen nnd heard to speak, food can be smelled nnd tnntcd, sensations such as touch, heat, and cold can be f e l t , and emotions such as frigh t and joy can be experienced. And, when immersed In fantasy, they do not ask wlwther their experiences nre real.

When their eyes are open, the other 35% of the fantasy-prone subjects a l s o commonly experience f a n t a s i e s of hallucinatory intensity In a l l senses except vision - t l c y hear imagined sounds, smell Imagined aromas, taste Imagined food, e t c . - but the v i s u a l component of the fantasy Is located either In the "mind's eye" (where i t can be "vivid") or i n the external environment where I t Is more vague and " g h o s t - l i k e " and not "ns r e a l as re a l . " In order to experience their fantnsles at hallucinatory Intensities In a l l sense modalities, including v i s u a l l y , these subjects must fantasize with their eyes closed. The fantasies of these subjects can perhaps best be understood by comparing them to other people's most v i v i d dreams, In which they are t o t a l l y involved and participating. During the time they are fantasizing, they experience imagined people and events as " r e a l " i n somewhat the same way ns sleeping individuals accept the events In their v i v i d dreams as "real."

Our data show that there Is a very close relationship (and possibly an identity when the "noise" i n the data Is removed) between the a b i l i t y to fantasize at hallucinatory i n t e n s i t i e s and the a b i l i t y to r e l i v e v i v i d l y personal experiences while recalling them, that i s , to r e c a l l In a

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hallucinatory way. A s t r i k i n g characteristic stared by 96% of the fantasy-prone subjects ( i n contrast to 4% i n the comparison group) i s t h e i r unusually vivid p e r s o n a l memories. When they are r e c a l l i n g a past experience, they bring i t into the present space and time, rec a l l i n g and re-experiencing the sensations that they f e l t i n the o r i g i n a l situation. In contrast, when subjects i n the comparison group are r e c a l l i n g a previous experience, they are remembering bajck and the experience i s In the past, not In the present.

A surprising aspect of their v i v i d personal memories i s that they seem to have l i t t l e childhood amnesia. Twenty-four of the 26 f a n t a s i z e r s (and only 3 subjects i n the comparison group) report many v i v i d memories of events tliat occurred prior to their third birthday. Of these, 8 also report clear memories from age 1 and 2, and an additional 8 report lucid memories of events which occurred on or before their f i r s t birthday. (We are aware of the p o s s i b i l i t y that these very e a r l y memories may be f a n t a s i e s Instead of r e a l i t i e s . We w i l l keep t h i s question open as we continue the research.)

In addition to developing v i v i d memories for personal experiences, two of the f a n t a s i z e r s a l s o developed very superior auditory memories for spoken material. By age 4 one of the fantasy-prone subjects appeared to perfectly read out loud a l l of her children's books from cover to cover. However, she could not read at a l l . She would look at each page of the book and re-hear word-for-word the voice of the adult who o r i g i n a l l y read i t to her. She retained t h i s exceptional auditory eldetlc imagery throught her l i f e and found i t very useful.

In apparent c o n t r a d i c t i o n t o t h e i r otherwise v i v i d , personal memories, a small number of the fantasizers have amnesia f o r c e r t a i n times and events i n t h e i r l i v e s , p a r t i c u l a r l y in regard to painful, traumatic happenings. In the same way as other individuals have pockets of amnesia in their personal memories, there i s a conscious or unconscious motivation not to remember the material; however, with the fantasy-prone subjects the motivation not to r e c a l l unpleasant events can become e x c e p t i o n a l l y strong. Ae stated above, whetV tHey r e c a l l a previous experience, they

tend to r e l i v e the experience and to feel the associated emotions as I f they are o c c u r r i n g i n the present. Consequently, when they begin to r e c a l l a p a i n f u l or traumatic experience, they begin to reinstate the pain or trauma at i t s o r i g i n a l i n t e n s i t y and there Is thus an exceedingly strong motivation to avoid f u r t h e r pain or trauma by avoiding further r e c a l l .

A s t r i k i n g characteristic sliared by a l l , imt two of the fantasy-prone subjects i s that their v i v i d f a n t a s i e s and memories are at times associated with physical concomitance. For instance, f i f t e e n spontaneously reported that they become 111 whenever they see violence on television or i n the movies. They cannot l e t themselves fantasize anything with violence because they are certain that they w i l l become s i c k . Although we d i d not d i r e c t l y ask t h i s In the Interview, seventeen told us that Imagined heat and cold affect them In the same way as actual heat and cold.

Nineteen of the fantasizers, In sharp contrast to only two subjects from the comparison group, reported having i l l n e s s or p h y s i c a l symptoms that seemed to have been d i r e c t l y related to their thoughts, fantasies, or memories. For instance, most so l d they had frequently experienced something such as becoming physically i l l wlien they thought ( i n c o r r e c t l y ) that they had eaten s p o i l e d food, or developing an uncomfortable and continuous Itch when they (Incorrectly) believed they had been contaminated with l i c e . An i l l u s t r a t i v e report was given by a subject who told us about the time she recaptured a neighboring child's pet frog which had escaped, remembered that she Iwd been told that frogs cause warts, and then developed a wart on her hand which was highly resistant to treatment.

Independently from our study, f i v e subjects from the f a n t a s y - p r o n e group were i n v o l v e d In c l i n i c a l or experimental biofeedback. A l l five stated that those who administered the biofeedback to them were c o n s i s t e n t l y impressed by t h e i r t a l e n t , manifested p r i o r to the b i o ­feedback t r a i n i n g , f o r c o n t r o l l i n g psychophysiological 'processes, e.g., speeding up and slowing down heart rate, r a i s i n g and lowering blood pressure, or i n c r e a s i n g and decreasing skin temperature.

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Fantasy-Prone Individuals and Pol Fltenomena

Ninety-two percent of the fantasy-prone subjects see themselves as psychic or s e n s i t i v e and report numerous telepathic and precognitive experlencea. (Sixteen percent of the subjects i n the comparison group also reported some experiences of this type.)

Hie fantasizers typ ica l ly state that (by some kind of extrasensory perception) they often know what i s happening at a s p e c i f i c moment i n the l i f e of a f r i e n d or a person they are close to. S imi lar ly , they claim that they often know what a friend Is thinking or feeling when he or she i s many miles away. They also claim that they very often feel ( in an extrasensory way) that a certain person i s about to c a l l them on the telephone and the f e e l i n g Is conf irmed w i t h i n a minute or two. Although the contents of t h e i r premonitions vary widely, a l l but two of the fantasizers claim precognitive experiences. For example, several are certain that they correct ly predicted serious llnessea and ileatlis of family members, close friends, or relat ives (often l i v i n g a long distance away); two assert that they always know beforehand exactly where they w i l l find a parking place i n large, crowded parking lots; and one seriously claims to have consistently predicted a l l the Kentucky Derby winners for the past 10 years (but has not made money on her precognitions because that i s an Inappropriate way to use her "gift"). The same fantasy-prone subjects a lso report precognitive dreams. In a typical report of this type, a subject said 6he dreamt that a C h r i s t - l i k e person to ld her that she would soon be kidnapped and explained to her what to do during the kidnapping so she would not be harmed. She soon afterwards was kidnapped (actually abducted for sexual purposes), l i t e r a l l y fo l lowed the i n s t r u c t i o n s from the dream, and was released without molestation or harm.

Almost a l l of the f a n t a s i z e r s report other kinds of psychic experiences or psychic talents which d i f f e r from subject to subject. For instance, each of the following i s reported by one or two subjec t s : conducting impress ive psychic readings , past l i f e readings or readings by psychometry; entering a medlumlstlc trance; seeing auras around people; "seeing" people's thoughts in images above

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their heads; believing they have a powerful Influence on e l e c t r i c a l appliances (fuses blow, t e l e v i s i o n sets "go crazy," etc.); and feeling a dowsing rod being pulled down strongly (whenever there Is hidden underground water beneath them) regardless of how hard they try to hold i t up.

The overwhelming major i ty of subjects (68%) In the fantasy-prone group, an contrasted to few (8%) in the comparison group, report r e a l i s t i c o u t - o f - t h e - b o d y experiences while they are "meditating." One subject claims she has had r e a l i s t i c out-of-the-body experiences almost every day as f a r back as she can remember, usually during the time she sets aside for fantasy. When we asked her to t e l l us what these experiences are l i k e for her, she unhesitatingly described such experiences as "a weightlens, floating sensation. But it's not exactly floating because there's nothing holding me up. It's l ike mixing with the n i r . I have the f ee l ing I could go any speed heennse there's no holding back of matter. I'm part of space, not a foreign object i n space." She reports that , at the beginning of the out-of-tlw-body experience, she can look back and see her body If she wants to hut she usua l ly doesn't pay attention to i t . Slie knows that people study, tra in , or practice to have out-of-the-body experiences, but strongly believes such experiences must occur naturally.

Although a substantial proportion of out-of-the-body experiences occur during periods of fantasy or "meditation," others occur during dreams or dream-l ike states . For instance, three of the fantasy-prone subjects ore convinced they t r a v e l to other places or other times while t h e i r physical body l i e s sleeping. One says she sometimes awakens and f inds herse l f h a l f i n and hal f out of her body. She states that during her astral travels she typically goes to sick individuals and heals them. She feels she His received external validation for this since people have told her tliat they awake i n the middle of the night and fee l a hand on their shoulder on the very night that she believed she had traveled to heal them. A second subject states that , beginning during her childhood and continuing in to the present, she ostral ly travels almost every night through hospitals helping and healing sick children. A third claims

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Lli.it while aatrally traveling at night she goes to the dying and helps them through the t r a n s i t i o n to the next l i f e . Rich of these three subjects told us they worried that If people knew about them, they might think they were "crazy" or "witches." This fear seems j u s t i f i e d s ince C. Wilson [121 and other writers have presented cases of women reputed to astral ly travel at night who were definitely viewed as witches by their neighbors.

The 'fearicAsy-prone subjects also reported out-of-the-body experiences, under other spec ia l circumstances. One subject liad one of her out-of-the-body experiences when she took LSI) and andther while she was In a sensory Isolation tank. Another subject had her most memorable out-of-the-body experience during a severe Illness when she was four years old. Two of the fantasizers have had out-of-the-body experiences during "near death experiences." For Instance, one subject was thrown from the car during an automobile accident in England and landed face down on the cobblestone street. She reports that she found herself standing on the sidewalk, In the midst of a gathering crowd, looking at Iter own body l y ing face down on the s treet . An ambulance arr ived and she watched as they placed her body on a 6tretcher and carried It Into the ambulance. Then she heard an attendant say she was dead and nothing more could be done. She r e c a l l s th inking , "I'm not ready to die yet.' 1

She then got back in to her body and t r i ed to move to l e t them know she was al ive. However, she was unable to move* Then ehc thought If she put a l l her e f for t Into I t , she might be able to move her eye l ids . She reports that the attendant saw her move her eyelids, realized she was a l ive , "worked on her," and saved her. (She a lso states that a f r i end who escaped serious Injury In the accident l a t e r verified that the attendant had truly pronounced her dead.)

More tlian two-thirds of the fantasy-prone subjects (and none of the comparison controls) feel that they have the a b i l i t y to heal ; that Is, they feel a natural tendency to move toward injured or sick individuals while empathizing with them and touching them. During this close interaction they feel they transmit energy and health to the sick or injured. Most or these subjects have participated in non-

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dramatic "liealings;" for instance, they have felt healing energy flowing from them to a child they were holding In the ir arms. However, nine of the fantas izers are more profoundly involved i n "healing," i.e., attending classes, lectures, and workshops on healing or therapeutic touch, p a r t i c i p a t i n g In heal ing groups, or performing overt or covert "healing" whenever they are with s i c k or injured individuals.

in general , the fantasy-prone subjects who saw themselves as "healers" also stated they themselves Itad been healed of an i l lness or injury by a healer at least once in the i r l i v e s . Although some of these "healings" were undramatlc (e.g., the "healing" of a headache), others were reported to us In a very dramatic way (e.g., sudden "healing" of severe arthr i t i s ) . In brief , our data suggest that fantasy-prone Individuals are heavily over-represented among both "healers" and "henlees." Further studies in thin area could prove very useful In explanlng the phenomenon of "healing" [13J.

Discussion

This study has delineated a fact that Is very Important for understanding the range of human psychology: a r e l a t i v e l y smal l group of more or less s a t i s f a c t o r i l y adjusted individuals, who l ive , work, and play l ike the rest of us, d i f fer from the majority of their fellows in tliat they l ive much of the time in a world of their own making -i n a world of imagery, imaginat ion, and fantasy. They fantasize much of the time when they are not busy; tley also fantasize much of the time when they are engaged In relatively non-demanding tasks; and their fantasies tend to become hallucinatory - they are often "as real as real" and, at times, "more real than real." It appears to us that both the amount of time devoted to fantasy and the hallucinatory intensity of the fantasies Is distributed on a normal curve of distribution, l ike other human tra i t s . Hie fantasy-prone subjects simply f a l l at the extreme end of the curve.

Of course, many other human a b i l i t i e s are a l so str ikingly different and diff icult* to believe when they l i e at the extreme end of the normal curve. To take examples

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from musical a b i l i t y , "Blind Tom," who was a poor, bl ind, black s lave youngster i n the South, found h i s way to h i s master's piano when 4 years of age, and was then and thereafter able to play perfectly by ear each of the many compositions he had• previously heard [14, IS]. Likewise, Mozart began to compose b e a u t i f u l v i o l i n sonatas and symphonies when lie was about seven years of age [16]. In the same way we find individuals on the extreme end of the normal curve of calculating a b i l i t y , who can, for example, In a few seconds mentally derive the cube root of 413,993,348,677 and other such numbers [17].

To the best of our knowledge, the syndrome that we have uncovered, which i n c l u d e s Involvement i n f a n t a s y , hallucinatory a b i l i t y , v iv id memories, hypnotizabllity, and psychic a b i l i t i e s , has not been del ineated before as a uni tary e n t i t y . However, each separate facet of the syndrome has been studied and, at times, two or more facets have been interrelated.

The h a l l u c i n a t o r y a b i l i t y (espec ia l ly the v i s u a l hallucinatory ab i l i ty ) shown by our subjects lias been noted previously under a variety of names. One hundred years ago Galton [18] found i n "sane and healthy" persons from a l l walks of l i f e that there l a "cont inuity between a l l the forms of v i s u a l i z a t i o n , beginning with an almost t o t a l absence of i t , and ending with complete hallucinations" P a r i s h [ 19] l a t e r r e p o r t e d s i m i l a r f i n d i n g s and a p p r o p r i a t e l y l a b e l e d the phenomenon "the waking hallucinations of healthy persons."

Let us look brief ly at representative Journal art ic les and books that have been written on individuals of the type we have described i n th i s paper. The wr i ters of theBe art ic les and books were amazed that such an individual could exist. (Although we too were surprised when we began to interview subjects, It soon became clear that fantasy-prone individuals who have developed the ab i l i ty to hallucinate may comprise as much as 4Z of the population but arc well hidden because they are aware that i t is social ly taboo to inform others of their extensive and v iv id fantasy l i f e . )

Vogt & Sultan [20] discuss with astonishment the famous inventor, Nikola Tesla, who was able to hallucinate whatever

I I i t t i t i

he was thinking or imaging. Tills ab i l i t y caused him much "mental anguish" during his childhood; he had d i f f i cu l ty , for example, differentiating between a visualized apple and a r e a l apple. As he got o l d e r , however, he learned to discriminate more clearly between visualization nnd real ity and he used h i s a b i l i t y to great advantage i n v i s u a l l y constructing his inventions such as the alternating current generator, the induction c o l l , fluorescent l ighting, neon bulbs, etc.

One of the world's foremost psychologists, A.R. Luria of the Soviet Union, wrote a c l a s s i c book, The Mind of a Mnemonlst [21], on a man who had the typical characteristics of our fantas izers and, in a d d i t i o n , had spec ia l i zed In learning and practicing mnemonic methods for rememltertng long l i s t s of words, numbers, and events. After studying this subject intensively, Luria concluded that, "Indeed, one would be hard put to say which was more real for him: the world of imagination In which he l i v e d , or the world of rea l i ty in which he was a temporary guest" ([21], p. 159). Like some of the fantasy-prone individuals described In this paper, Lurla ' s subject had a v i v i d memory, could c l e a r l y reca l l early childhood events, accelerate his heart rate by imagining running, make his hand hot or cold by Imagining p lac ing i t on a hot stove or i n Ice water, and block the experience of pain when in the dent is t ' s cha ir by hallucinating himself s i t t ing In another part of the room observing the ongoing dentistry. In fact, his exceptional memory "talent" becomes much more understandable when we r e a l i z e that mnemonic techniques can be learned by any intel l igent person who i s wi l l ing to make the effort (22).

Recently, another i n d i v i d u a l who has the a b i l i t i e s which c h a r a c t e r i z e our fantasy -prone subjects was immortalized in a best-sell ing book entitled The Story of Ruth by Dr. Schatzman [23]. An Important aspect of RiftlTs d i f f i c u l t i e s , which she revealed e a r l y i n psych ia tr i c therapy, was that she became nervous and agitated whenever she saw (an apparition of) her father in her house. (Iter father was a l i v e at that timet) Ruth stated that (the apparition of) her father would a l t in a chair in her house and watch her. Sometimes "he" would laugh or smile . At other times, she could hear "him" coming and going and could

1 & i i I i t i,. fc

e m e l l t h e smoke f r o m h i s p i p e - i n fac t ,^ t h e " s m o k e " made h e r house s m e l l y ^ I t a p p e a r e d f r o m Ru th ' s s t a t e m e n t s t h a t t h e a p p a r i t i o n o f h e r f a t h e r l i a d t h e same c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s a n d was p r a c t i c a l l y i n d i s t i n g u i s l i a b l e f rom h e r r e a l f a t h e r .

A f t e r a s e r i e s o f s e s s i o n s , t h e p s y c h i a t r i s t , D r . S c h a t z m a n , a s k e d R u t h , " W h y d o n ' t y o u t r y t o p r o d u c e t h e a p p a r i t i o n ? " R u t h f i n a l l y a g r e e d , s t a r e d a t a n e m p t y s p a c e i n t h e . c o r a e r o f t h e r o o m , a n d t h e n announced , " I ' m s e e i n g h i m now; ' l i e ' s w e a r i n g a w h i t e s h i r t t h a t ' s w e l l p r e s s e d . " As R u t h d e s c r i b e d t h e d e t a i l s o f t h e a p p a r i t i o n v i v i d l y , D r . Sc l i a t z raan a s k e d h e r t o make i t g o away . She c o n c e n t r a t e d f o r a b o u t t e n s e c o n d s a n d t h e n announced , " l i e ' s gone now." What she h a d done p r e v i o u s l y u n c o n s c i o u s l y - c r e a t i n g t h e a p p a r i t i o n - now became c o n s c i o u s : she r e a l i z e d t h a t she c o u l d make "htm" come a n d she c o u l d make " h i m " g o ; t h a t " l i e " was u n d e r h e r c o n t r o l ; and t h a t she had b e e n c r e a t i n g " h i m " a l l a l o n g b u t h a d n o t r e a l i z e d t h a t she was d o i n g i t .

A s m i g h t b e e x p e c t e d , R u t h p o s s e s s e s a l l o f t h e s t r i k i n g c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s t h a t a r e found i n o u r f a n t a s y - p r o n e subjects. Among otherB s h e c a n make h e r hand v e r y h o t o r v e r y c o l d b y f a n t a s i z i n g a h o t o r c o l d s i t u a t i o n , a n d e x p e r i e n c e s v i v i d c h i l d h o o d m e m o r i e s . A l s o , a s m i g h t b e expected, when s h e was a c h i l d , she p e r c e i v e d h e r d o l l s a s l i t e r a l l y a l i v e a n d s h e h a d ( i m a g i n a r y ) c h i l d r e n a s playmates a n d c o m p a n i o n s . A f t e r w o r k i n g many months w i t h R u t h , D r . S c h a t z m a n c o n c l u d e d t h a t h e r b a s i c t a l e n t was h e r a b i l i t y f o r " s u p p r e s s i n g k n o w l e d g e o f w h a t w a s r e a l t o e x p e r i e n c e s o m e t h i n g e l s e . " To t h e p r e s e n t w r i t e r s , t h i s i s anotlier way o f s a y i n g t h a t R u t h ' s b a s i c t a l e n t i s t h e same as that o f o u r f a n t a s y - p r o n e s u b j e c t s ; n a m e l y , an a b i l i t y t o h a l l u c i n a t e - t o b e c o m e s o a b s o r b e d a n d i n v o l v e d i n a n imagined o r f a n t a s i z e d e v e n t t h a t i t b e c o m e s r e a l , a n d consensus r e a l i t y I s n o t p e r c e i v e d .

L u r l a [ 2 1 ] , a n d S c h a t z m a n [ 2 3 ] do n o t s a y v e r y much a b o u t t h e " p s y c h i c " e x p e r i e n c e s o f t h e i r s u b j e c t s . We w o u l d Burmise t h a t t h i s i s due t o f a i l u r e o n t h e part o f t h e i n v e s t i g a t o r s t o p r o b e i n t o t h e i r s u b j e c t s ' " p s y c h i c " e x p e r i e n c e s r a t h e r t h a n t o t h e a l t e r n a t i v e p o s s i b i l i t y t h a t t h e s u b j e c t s s i m p l y d i d n o t h a v e s u c h e x p e r i e n c e s . A r e c e n t a r t i c l e on a wpraan who h a s t h e a b i l i t i e s w h i c h c h a r a c t e r i z e o u r f a n t a s y - p r o n e s u b j e c t s e m p h a s i z e s h e r " p s y c h i c "

l i . l l L f c . t - f c

e x p e r i e n c e s more t l i a n h e r o t h e r a b i l i t i e s . T h i s a r t i c l e [24 ] d e s c r i b e s a w e l l - f u n c t i o n i n g and s u c c e s s f u l i n d i v i d u a l , R o s a l y n D r u y e r e , who " s e e s " a n d r e a d s a u r a s , " s e e s " I n s i d e a p e r s o n ' s b o d y , p e r f o r m s p s y c h i c h e a l i n g s , a n d h a s o u t - o f -t h e - b o d y e x p e r i e n c e s . MB. B r u y e r e ' s t a l e n t s a r e n o t e s p e c i a l l y s u r p r i s i n g t o u s . I n f a c t , o u r d a t a l e a d t o t h e p r e d i c t i o n t h a t w h e n M s . B r u y e r e , a n d o t h e r s w h o s h o w s i m i l a r p s y c h i c t a l e n t s , a r e i n t e r v i e w e d Jn d e p t h , t h e y w i l l be found t o p o s s e s s t h e c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o r f a n t a s y - p r o n e i n d i v i d u a l s .

Our d a t a a l s o s u g g e s t t h a t I n d i v i d u a l s m a n i f e s t i n g t h e f a n t a s y - p r o n e syndrome may have been o v e r - r e p r e s e n t e d among famous m e d i u m s , p s y c h i c s , and r e l i g i o u s v i s i o n a r i e s o f t h e p a s t . T o t e s t t h e v a l i d i t y o f t h i s c o n j e c t u r e , we h a v e begun t o l o o k a t t h e b i o g r a p h i e s o f I n d i v i d u a l s I n t h e s e c a t e g o r i e s . F o r I n s t a n c e , we l o o k e d a t a r e c e n t b i o g r a p h y o f M a d a m e B l a v a t s k y w h o , i n a d d i t i o n t o f o u n d i n g m o d e r n Theosophy was a l s o r e p u t e d t o be a s e n s i t i v e and t o have p s y c h i c p o w e r s . She I s d e s c r i b e d b y h e r b i o g r a p h e r [2r>] a l o n g t h e f o l l o w i n g l i n e s : A s a young c h i l d she t h o r o u g h l y b e l i e v e d I n g h o s t s , m o n s t e r s , s n d v a r i o u s o t h e r m a g i c a l c r e a t u r e s who obeyed h e r commands. D u r i n g h e r l a t e r l i f e s h e h a d many h a l l u c i n a t o r y and p s y c l i l c e x p e r i e n c e s . The b e s t s h o r t d e s c r i p t i o n o f h e r , w h i c h was p r o v i d e d by t h e poe t W i l l i a m B u i t i e r Y e a t s a f t e r he became w e l l - a c q u a i n t e d w i t h h e r i s , " S h e d r e a m s w h i l e a w a k e . " T h e s e a n d o t n e r I n d i c a t i o n s o f a p r o f o u n d f a n t a s y l i f e l e a d u s t o c o n c l u d e t h a t Madame B l a v a t s k y had c l i a r a c t e r l s t l c s s i m i l a r t o t h e f a n t a s y - p r o n e s u b j e c t s we I n t e r v i e w e d i n t h i s p r o j e c t .

Famous mediums s u c h a s M r o . L e o n a r d and E i l e e n G a r r e t t a l s o h a d s i m i l a r a t t r i b u t e s . A s c h i l d r e n , b o t h l i v e d a g r e a t p a r t o f t h e t i m e i n a m a k e - b e l i e v e w o r l d , h a d I m a g i n a r y p l a y m a t e s w h o l o o k e d a n d f e l t l i k e o r d i n a r y c h i l d r e n , h a d " v i s i t a t i o n s " f r o m d e a d r e l a t i v e s , a n d h a d d i f f i c u l t y d i s t i n g u i s h i n g f a n t a s i z e d f r o m n o n - f a n t a s i z e d e v e n t s a n d p e r s o n s [ 2 6 , 2 7 ] . A s a d u l t s t h e y w e r e e x c e l l e n t h y p n o t i c s u b j e c t s who became t r a n c e m e d i u m s , c o n t i n u e d t o spend much t i m e f a n t a s i z i n g a t h a l l u c i n a t o r y i n t e n s i t i e s , a n d h a d many p s y c h i c e x p e r i e n c e s .

I n a d d i t i o n t o c a s t i n g a new l i g h t o n a v a r i e t y o f

i i n i i I ii t-

psychological and parapsychological phenomena, the data from t h i s study a l s o c l a r i f y the t o p i c of hypnosis. The data show that hypnotic phenomena are n a t u r a l f o r some i n d i v i d u a l s ; fantasy-prone p e r s o n a l i t i e s have had many experiences throughout t h e i r l i v e s which are s i m i l a r to c l a s s i c a l h y p n o s i s e x p e r i e n c e s , and they f i n d the suggestions of the hypnotist very harmonious with their own ongoing experiential l i f e .

I t has been c l e a r f o r many years that the hypnotic situation can be viewed as a s o c i a l interaction i n which one person communicates ideas and suggestions, while another person accepts and acts on the communications according to h i s or her understandings, a t t i t u d e s , expectations, and motivations [4,28-30). Although much about hypnosis can be understood by viewing i t as a s o c i a l interaction that i s affected by a large number of aoclo-psychologlcal variables, there s t i l l remains something very Important that needs to be explained: When other Important factors are apparently held constant (e.g., subjects' attltudeo, expectancies and motivations, the relationship between subject and hypnotist, and the wording and tone of the suggestions), why does one subject respond quickly, ea s i l y , and profoundly to a wide v a r i e t y of suggestions while other subjects respond perfunctorily to only a few suggestions? ltie present study helps to c l a r i f y hypnosis by showing that there are i n d i v i d u a l s who have a h i s t o r y of intense fantasy, have developed hallucinatory a b i l i t i e s , and wlto, as a result of these talents, arc able to quickly, easily, and profoundly experience the c l a s s i c a l hypnotic phenomena.

In fact, as our data accumulated, we realized that the major reason why some Individuals are excellent- hypnotic subjects i s that they l i v e i n a fantasy world of their own creation that i s much very l i k e the world the hypnotist asks them to "go in t o . " For the 26 f a n t a s i z e r s , there i s a reduction or fading of the generalized r e a l i t y orientation to s e l f , time, and place [311 whenever they become involved In e i t h e r t h e i r own f a n t a s i e s nnd memories or i n the experiences that are. t y p i c a l l y suggested by a hypnotist. Furthermore, there are many c l o s e p a r a l l e l s between c l a s s i c a l hypnotic phenomena and the experiences of fantasizers In their everyday l i f e .

i t i I I 1 1. i

The hypnotic phenomenon of age regression would not be d i f f i c u l t for the subject dencribed e a r l i e r who, when simply naked about her e a r l y memories during the i n t e r v i e w , recalled nnd v i v i d l y re-experienced her f i r s t birthday with a l l the associated sights, sounds, feelings, and emotions. In fact, age regression ( r e l i v i n g previous experiences) i s something v i r t u a l l y a l l the f a n t a s i z e r s do n a t u r a l l y i n their d a l l y l i v e s .

Another c l a s s i c a l hypnotic phenomenon has been labeled v i s u a l nnd a u d i t o r y h a l l u c i n a t i o n s . The majority of the fantasy-prone subjects do not find i t especially d i f f i c u l t to respond to hypnotic suggestions to hallucinate v i s u a l l y , a c o u s t i c a l l y , or i n any other sensory modality. For Instance, i f a hypnotist t e l l s a fantasy-prone subject he i s presenting her w i t h a rose w h i l e he presents her with ammonia* her v i v i d (hallucinatory) memory of the odor of a rose (to which she i s attending) can conceal the odor of the ammonia. The c l a s s i c a l hypnotic phenomenon l a b e l e d as negative h a l l u c i n a t i o n (not seeing or hearing n person or object i n the room) i s a l s o not too d i f f i c u l t f o r most fantasy-prone subjects. When they are given such a suggestion, they can "block out" the person or object from t h e i r perceptual f i e l d by f a n t a s i z i n g ( h a l l u c i n a t i n g ) something else i n the place of the person or object they are not to perceive.

The c l a s s i c a l h y p n o t i c s i t u a t i o n a l s o Includes suggestions that a l i m b or part of the body f e e l s heavy, r i g i d , l i g h t , hot, c o l d , or numb. These suggestions nre easy for subjects who lmve l u c i d (hallucinatory) memories and are able to v i v i d l y remember and re-experience a time when a l i m b or part of the body f e l t heavy, l i g h t , hot, numb, etc. Other c l a s s i c a l hypnotic suggestions that are associated with observable bodily cliangcs, e.g., Increasing the blood flow to a l i m b , r a i s i n g or lowering the heart rote, removing warts or producing b l i s t e r s (28,32,33) appear to be w i t h i n the p o t e n t i a l of fantnsy-prone I n d i v i d u a l s whose fantasies of eating spoiled food can produce i l l n e s s , etc*

In b r i e f , individuals we have labeled as fantany-prone p e r s o n a l i t i e s have many experiences i n their d a i l y lives that are s i m i l a r to those which lmve been associated with

fL i . t I i H- * t

hypnosis. We would conjecture that these are the people who have been the subjects when we hear dramatic accounts of hypnotic phenomena. Apparently most hypnotists do not r e a l i z e t h a t these e x c e l l e n t hypnotic subjects (or "somuambules") are able to experience the c l a s s i c a l hypnotic phenomena p r i m a r i l y b e c a u s e they had p r a c t i c e i n experiencing s i m i l a r phenomena during t h e i r d a i l y l i v e s . Our data i n d i c a t e that the hypnosis s e t t i n g provides a s i tuat'iioro In which those w i t h a secret fantasy l i f e can p u b l i c l y demonstrate t h e i r Bpeclal a b i l i t i e s or talents, where they are not only s o c i a l l y permissible, but rewarded.

Before closing this discussion on hypnosis, we should mention that the data presented i n this paper also cast a new l i g h t on an Important, unexplained h i s t o r i c a l fact about hypnosis. During the early part of the 19th century, the phenomena that were thought to be associated with hypnosis included hallucinations, delusions, catalepsy, anesthesia, amnesia, and telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition {34J. It was apparently assumed at that time that the l a t t e r three phenomena were explained by the postulate that hypnosis gave rise to psychic s e n s i t i v i t y . Our data, however, suggest an a l t e r n a t i v e i n t e r p r e t a t i o n : although deep hypnosis may encourage an individual to manifest his psychic a b i l i t i e s , I t does not produce them; Instead, s e n s i t i v i t y to telepathic, clairvoyant, and precognltlve Impressions and the a b i l i t y to reduce orientation to time, place, and person (under deep hypnosis) tend to be found i n the same kind of person - one who has a history of profound involvement In fantasy.

It needs to be strongly emphasized that our subjects with a propensity for hallucinatory fantasy are as w e l l -adjusted as our comparison group or as the average person. It appears that the l i f e experiences and s k i l l developments which underlie the a b i l i t y for hallucinatory fantasy are more or less Independent of the kinds of l i f e experiences that lead to psychopathology. Five of the fantasy-prone subjects are happy, popular, competent, l o v i n g , and have high self-esteem; four have had d i f f i c u l t i e s i n adjustment; and the remainder work, love, and socialize within the broad average range of adjustment.

I i l l I t I 1 *

We have noted that our fantasy-prone subjects seem to have v i v i d sensory experiences nnd v i v i d personal memories. E a r l i e r Investigators liad s i m i l a r l y noted that an excellent memory was found In Individuals whom we would expect to be high In fantasy. Spiegel [35] noted that his best hypnotic subjects In a c l i n i c a l situation were characterized by an e x c e l l e n t memory (plus empathy, t r u s t i n people, and absorption i n the present). Along s i m i l a r illpes, R o l l [36] summarized evidence Indicating that Individuals with psychic a b i l i t i e s also have exceptional memories. He refers, for example, to Osty, Bekhterev, Abramowskt, William James, S i r Oliver Lodge, Tenhaeff, and other Investigators who found that the best subjects In ESP experiments ond also w e l l -known psychics who have been studied I n t e n s i v e l y - e.g., Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Leonard - manifested a remarkably v i v i d memory.

We would hypothesize that v i v i d sensory experiences, memories, and f a n t a s i e s are c a u s a l l y I n t e r r e l a t e d as follows: Individuals who focus on and v i v i d l y f e e l their sensory experiences have r e l a t i v e l y l u c i d memories of their experiences; and Individuals with v i v i d memories of their experiences are able to have r e l a t i v e l y v i v i d fantasies because they can use their v i v i d memories as raw material from which they can creatively construct thei r fantasies.

Although the above hypotheses appear d i f f i c u l t to test, the relationships we have noted between sensory experiences,' memories, and fantasies lead to predictions that are easily testable. For Instance, wo should bo able to predict the v i v i d n e s s of I n d i v i d u a l s ' f a n t a s i e s by assessing the vividness of their sensory experiences or by asking them to r e c a l l s p e c i f i c personal events - for Instance, their f i r s t day i n school, the f i r s t time they smoked a cigarette, etc. The degree to which they have v i v i d sensory experiences and r e c a l l and re-experience e a r l i e r personal events v i v i d l y In a l l sense m o d a l i t i e s should p r e d i c t the h a l l u c i n a t o r y q u a l i t i e s of their fantasies and correlated variables such as hypnotlzablllty and psychic a b i l i t i e s .

Of course, much further research i s needed to determine how fantasy and lialluclnatory a b i l i t y develop i n both males and females i n our culture and In other cultures, liow these a b i l i t i e s are l o s t , maintained, or strengthened during the

L K L L f l f e - l l -

l t f c span, and how they are r e l a t e d to h y p n o t I z a b l l l t y , psychic experiences, and other normal and abnormal psychological phenomena.

References

1. Barber, T.X., & Wilson, S.C "The Barber S u g g e s t i b i l i t y Scale and the Creative Imagination Scale: Experimental and C l i n i c a l Applications," American Journal of C l i n i c a l Hypnosis, Vol. 21 (1978/79), pp. 84-108.

2. Barber, T.X., & Wilson, S.C. "Guided Imagining and Hypnosis: T h e o r e t i c a l and E m p i r i c a l Overlap and Covergence i n a New Creative Imagination Scale," In A.A. Sheikh & J.T. Shatter, eds., T1>e Potential of Fantasy and Imagination (New.York: Brandon House, 1979), pp. 67-08.

3. Wilson, S.C., & Barber, T.X. "The Creative Imagination S c a l e as a Measure of H y p n o t i c R e s p o n s i v e n e s s : A p p l i c a t i o n s to Experimental and C l i n i c a l Hypnosis," American Journal of C l i n i c a l Hypnosis, Vol. 20 (1978), pp. 235-249.

4. Barber, T.X. Hypnosis: A S c i e n t i f i c Approach (New York: Van NOBtrand Reinhold, 1969).

5. Barber, T.X. Positive Suggestions for Effective Living and Philosophical Hypnosis, Cassette tape (Medfleld, MA: Medfleld Foundation, P 0 Box 312, 1978).

6. Barber, T.X. Hypnotic Suggestions for Weight Control and Smoking Cessation, Cassette tape (Medfleld, MA: Medfleld Foundation, P 0 Box 312, 1979).

7. Barber, T.X. Hypnotic and Self-Hypnotic Suggestions for Study-Concentration, Relaxation, Pain C o n t r o l , and Mystical Experiences, Cassette tape (Medfleld, MA: Mcdffeld Foundation, P 0 Box 312, 1979).

8. Barber, T.X., & Wilson, S.C Hypnotic Inductions, Mental ^ I f l ^ A 0 1 * * - an4 Permissive Suggestions, Cassette tape TMedfleld, MA: Medfleld Foundation, P 0 Box 312, 1978).

9. Weltzenhoffer, A.M., & H l l g a r d , E.R. Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Forms A and B (Palo Alto, Calif.: Consulting Psychological Press', 1962).

10. Weltzenhoffer, A.M., & Hllgard, E.R. Stanford llypnotlc S u s c e p t i b i l i t y Scale, Form C (Palo A l t o , C a l i f . * Consulting Psychological Press, 1962).

L I I L i I I * t

11. H l l g a r d , J.R. P e r s o n a l i t y and Hypnosis: A Study of Imaginative Involvement (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970).

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28. Barber, T.X. LSD, Marihuana, Yoga, and Hypnosis (Hawthorne, NY.: Aldlne Publishing Co., 19767T

29. Barber, T.X., Spanos, N.P., & Chaves, J.F. Hypnosis, Imagination, and Human P o t e n t i a l i t i e s (Eluisford, N.Y.: Pergaraon Press, 1974^

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33. Barber, T.X. "Hypnosis, Suggestions, and Psychosomatic Phenomena: A New Look from the Standpoint of Recent Experimental Studies," American Journal of C l i n i c a l Hypnosis, Vol. 21 (1978), pp. 13-27.

34. Dingwall, E.J., ed., Abnormnl Hypnotic Phenomena: A Survey of Nineteenth-Century Cases, Vole. 1, 2, 3, and 7T (Hew York: Barnes & Noble, 1968).

35. Spiegel, II. "The Grade 5 Syndrome: The Highly Hypno-tUuhle Person," International Journal of C l l n t c u l and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol. 22 (1974), pp. 303-319^

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Tlv> Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Gushing Hospital, P 0 Box 190 Frarolnghnu, MA 01701